FAILURE OF CLINICAL AND LABORATORY CHARACTERISTICS TO DIFFERENTIATE MESANGIAL PROLIFERATIVE FROM MINIMAL-CHANGE NEPHROTIC SYNDROME

Twelve clinical and laboratory characteristics of nephrotic syndrome w ere compared in 24 children with biopsy-proven mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (MesPGN) and 17 children with biopsy-proven minima l-change nephropathy (MCNS). The objective of the study was to determi ne if these characteristics alone, without renal biopsy, could be used to differentiate the two histopathologic entities. Sex, urinary prote in level and IgM immunofluorescence were found to be significantly dif ferent in the two groups. Discriminant analysis produced two formulae which gave a discriminant rate of 79% for MesPGN and 76% for MCNS. We conclude that the clinical and laboratory characteristics studied coul d not differentiate MesPGN from MCNS.