These data indicate that children in Belize are being exposed to lead and suggest that this pilot study be followed up with a comprehensive study with a larger sample and correlation of the findings to socioeconomic characteristics, to children's behavior, and to the home and school environment.
Recent reports have described the occurrence of the nephrotic syndrome in newborn infants.1-4,15,16 This condition has been called "congenital nephrosis," and seems to represent a clinically distinct entity, with a striking familial incidence. The microscopic changes in the disease have been well described. 1-3,15,16 These changes include abnormalities in the renal tubules, alteration of the glomerular epithelial foot processes as seen with electron microscopy, and, in some cases, glomerular basement membrane thickening and glomerular destruction.Two siblings have been studied by us, who clinically showed the typical features of this syndrome. They demonstrate an unusual microscopic feature which has not been stressed in previous reports. In both children, the small renal arteries and arterioles showed marked muscular hypertrophy without fibrinoid change. This change was apparent even when taking into consideration the fact that these vessels are normally prominent in this age group.5 Tubular and glomerular alterations, similar to those pre¬ viously described, were also present, but were less impressive than the vascular changes.Studies were made of the serum and uri¬ nary proteins in one of the patients. Quali¬ tative alterations of the serum protein fractions, and quantitative variations in the renal excretion of the proteins were noted. Clinical Description Case 1.-This infant was the product of an un¬ eventful pregnancy. Spontaneous rupture of mem¬ branes at 35 weeks was followed within 12 hours by normal delivery. The parents were in good health, and are not consanguineous. A 2-year-old brother was in good health.At birth, the patient weighed 2.7 kg., and was said to appear "puffy" and "froglike." Atelectasis was noted, and incubator care with tube feeding was carried out for 5 days. At 10 days of age the baby was discharged weighing 2.45 kg. In spite of "poor feeding," the infant gained about 450 gm. per week, and at the age of 8 weeks was grossly edematous when admitted to the hospital.
The urine of 10 football players, collected for 24 hours following a practice game, was found to contain 2.3–15.2 times as much protein as urine collected following a period of rest. No changes were noted on electrophoresis of the serum proteins. The renal clearance of serum albumin increased more than the clearance of serum globulins following exercise, but in both the control and post-exercise specimens the clearance of globulins and percentage of globulins in the urine usually exceeded these values for albumin. Considerable variation in the excretion of proteins was noted among individual subjects in the control period; as protein excrextion increased following exercise, the protein excretion patterns became more uniform in these subjects. Compared to the previously described exercise proteinuria which occurs immediately following exercise, this second phase is characterized by less intense protein excretion and longer duration. Submitted on January 6, 1960
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.