Nephropathy

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (April 2008)

Nephropathy Classification and external resources
MeSH	D007674

Nephropathy refers to damage to or disease of the kidney. An older term for this is nephrosis.

Contents 1 Causes 1.1 Analgesics 1.2 Xanthine oxidase deficiency 2 See also

Causes

Causes of nephropathy include administration of analgesics, xanthine oxidase deficiency, and long-term exposure to lead or its salts. Chronic conditions that can produce nephropathy include diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure (hypertension), which lead to diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive nephropathy, respectively.

Analgesics

Main article: Analgesic nephropathy

One cause of nephropathy is the long term usage of analgesics. The pain medicines which can cause Liver problems include aspirin, acetaminophen, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. This form of nephropathy is "chronic analgesic nephritis," a chronic inflammatory change characterized by loss and atrophy of tubules and interstitial fibrosis and inflammation (BRS Pathology, 2nd edition).

Specifically, long term use of the analgesic phenacetin has been linked to renal papillary necrosis (necrotizing papillitis).

Xanthine oxidase deficiency

Main article: Xanthine oxidase deficiency

A second possible cause of nephropathy is due to decreased function of xanthine oxidase in the purine degradation pathway. Xanthine oxidase will degrade hypoxanthine to xanthine and then to uric acid. Xanthine is not very soluble in water; therefore, an increase in xanthine forms crystals (which can lead to kidney stones) and result in damage of the kidney. Drugs like allopurinol that are used to inhibit xanthine oxidase can therefore cause possible nephropathy.

See also

• Nephritis
• IgA nephropathy

v • d • e Urinary system · Pathology · Urologic disease / Uropathy (N00-N39, 580-599) Abdominal Kidney/ nephropathy Glomerulus Nephritis/ glomerulonephritis by structure: Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis · Membranous glomerulonephritis/Membranous nephritis  · IgA nephropathy/glomerulonephritis by disease: Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis · Lupus nephritis other: Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis · Nephritic syndrome Nephrosis/ noninflammatory Glomerulosclerosis (Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, Diabetic nephropathy/glomerulosclerosis) · Nephrotic syndrome (Minimal change disease) · Familial renal amyloidosis Renal tubule/ IERTT/ RTA Proximal RTA 2 Thick ascending Bartter syndrome Distal convoluted Gitelman syndrome Collecting duct Liddle's syndrome · RTA 1 · Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus Renal papilla Renal papillary necrosis Major calyx/pelvis Hydronephrosis · Pyonephrosis · Reflux nephropathy Any/all Obstructive uropathy · Analgesic nephropathy · Acute tubular necrosis Interstitium Interstitial nephritis (Pyelonephritis, Danubian endemic familial nephropathy) Any/all Renal failure Acute renal failure · Chronic renal failure Vascular Renal artery stenosis · Hypertensive nephropathy · Renovascular hypertension Other Renal osteodystrophy · Nephroptosis · Abderhalden-Kaufmann-Lignac syndrome Ureter Ureteritis · Ureterocele · Megaureter Pelvic Bladder Cystitis (Interstitial cystitis, Trigonitis) · Neurogenic bladder · Vesicointestinal fistula · Vesicoureteral reflux Urethra Urethritis (Non-gonococcal urethritis) · Urethral syndrome · Urethral stricture Any/all Urinary tract infection · Retroperitoneal fibrosis · Urolithiasis (Kidney stone, Renal colic) See also congenital, neoplasia, symptoms/signs

Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History