Pericardial effusion in childhood nephrotic syndrome.

Background: Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is one of the most common renal diseases in children, which is defined as idiopathic NS and secondary NS. Current data on adult showed that pericardial effusion was related only to SLE, but not to non-SLE nephrotic patients. Until now there were no studies about children.

Objective: To compare the frequency and clinical manifestations of pericardial effusion in childhood NS with SLE and non-SLE patients.

Material And Method: Consecutive cases of NS at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health (QSNICH) from June 2004 to May 2005 were prospectively studied. Information concerning the following: gender, age, clinical manifestations, laboratory investigation and echocardiogram in each patient were obtained.

Results: A total of 37 cases were included, 13 with SLE and 24 with idiopathic cause. Pericardial effusion was found without any symptoms and signs of pericardial disease in both groups; 9 cases (69.2%) of SLE and 2 cases (8.3%) of non-SLE patients. Statistically significant differences were demonstrated between two groups (p = 0.001).

Conclusion: Pericardial effusion in childhood NS was more frequent in SLE than non-SLE nephrotic patients statistically significant. This result was different from previous study in adult which revealed no pericardial effusion in non-SLE group.