EMERGENCY CASEBOOKS
Nephrotic syndrome presenting as deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism
Medical Unit, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, Dumfries, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr C Isles, Medical Unit, Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary, Dumfries DG1 4AP, UK; chris.isles{at}nhs.net
A patient presenting with a swollen left leg and pleuritic chest pain was shown to have deep vein thrombosis (DVT) by Doppler studies. He was anticoagulated but required two further admissions with swelling of both legs before a diagnosis of nephrotic syndrome was considered and confirmed. Renal biopsy showed that this was caused by membranous nephropathy. Two audits were subsequently conducted. The first was of diagnostic discharge codes for nephrotic syndrome and venous thromboembolism in south west Scotland (population 147 000) from 1997 to 2006. A diagnosis of nephrotic syndrome was confirmed in 32 patients, four (12.5%) of whom (including the index case) had presented with DVT (two) or pulmonary embolus (PE) (two). A second audit of 98 consecutive patients with Doppler-positive lower limb DVT presenting to A&E in Dumfries from July 2005 to July 2006 showed that the urine had been tested for protein in one case only. Although nephrotic syndrome remains an uncommon cause of DVT or PE, it is complicated by venous thromboembolism sufficiently frequently for the diagnosis to be considered in all patients with DVT or PE, for whom the take-home message should simply be—Don’t forget to dip the urine or ignore a low serum albumin.
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
(2009). Preventing recurrent venous thromboembolism. DTB
47: 38-40
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
