Retrospective Evaluation of Geriatric Inpatients with Nephrotic Syndrome: A Single Centre Experience

Objective: Nephrotic syndrome frequently develops because of primary kidney disease in older adults. The most common secondary cause is diabetic nephropathy. This study aims to investigate the frequency of nephrotic syndrome and the primary and secondary causes of nephrotic syndrome in hospitalised patients aged 65 years and over in our centre. Materials and Methods: Patients aged 65 years and over who were hospitalised in the internal medicine clinic between October 2000 and 2014 using the "nephrotic syndrome" diagnostic code were selected from hospital records. Demographic, clinical, biochemical parameters and pathology results were examined retrospectively. Results: A total of 92 patients were diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. Thirty-one patients were included in the study after reviewing patient files (32.3% female, 67.7% male). In nine patients, biopsies were not performed because of general risk factors, atrophic kidney, bleeding diathesis and other reasons. The mean age was 72.6 [+ or -] 5.2 (65-87) years. The records indicated that 58% of patients were hypertensive, 26% were diabetic, 23% suffered from coronary artery disease, 58% had hyperlipidaemia and 13% had connective tissue disease. In the biopsy results, 40.8% were diagnosed with membranous glomerulonephritis. Amyloidosis, diabetic nephropathy and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis diagnoses were present in 18.2%, 18.2% and 13.6% of patients, respectively. Conclusion: Membranous glomerulonephritis was the most common type of nephrotic syndrome in our centre in accordance with the literature in older patients. We found that amyloidosis and diabetic nephropathy ranked second. The present study demonstrated the importance of renal biopsy in the presence of nephrotic syndrome in older adults. Keywords: Elderly, nephrotic syndrome, renal biopsy