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Background : Adult nephrotic syndrome is associated with a higher prevalence of identifiable risk factors which though may be remediable but have deleterious consequences on renal function. Objective : To determine frequency of serum reactants, antibodies and autoantibodies among adult nephrotics at the UNTH, Enugu. Design: Case control study. Outcome measure : Serum titres of reactive proteins and antibodies in cases compared to control. Methodology : Serum Samples were obtained from 51 nephrotic (35males and 16 females) along with 48 controls (30males and 18females) sex age matched, by standard laboratory techniques. These samples were screened using commercially available kits and standard laboratory methods for the presence of HBsAg, ASO antibody, Rheumatoid factors, VDRL and LE cells. Their ESR were also determined by the Westergreen method. Results : HBsAg were found in 3subjects ASO antibodies were less than 200 todd units for both subjects and controls Rheumatoid factor, LE cells were negative in both subjects and controls. The mean ESR of the male (80.4± 1.2) and female (117.7±2.1) nephrotic subjects were significantly higher than that of the male (13.2±0.2) and female (22.0±0.1) control (P schistosome antibody. But malaria antibody was found in the glomerular basement membrane of 2 patients and also in the serum of over half of the subjects and controls. Conclusion : The variety of reactive and autoantibodies in the study subjects may have been due to the selection methods the significantly raised ESR in the subjects underscores the role of inflammatory processes as primary and /or secondary events in the pathomechanism of the renal injury in the nephrotic syndrome. |
