Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

Objective:Nephrotic syndrome (NS) is one of the most common chronic kidney diseases in childhood defined by massive proteinuria (greater than 40 mg/m2/hour) responsible for hypoalbuminemia (less than 30 g/l), with resulting hyperlipidemia, edema, and various complications,in recent years,it has been proposed that nephrotic syndrome is a result from imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants. It can be stated that lipid peroxidation is one of the possible cause of nephrotic syndrome progression. Vitamin E acts as a lipid-soluble antioxidant, vitamin E and its various metabolites demonstrate the ability to regulate cellular signaling and gene transcription modulation and act as indirect marker of free radical injury in the body. Methods: The study was a hospital based, prospective cohort study ,aimed to measure serum vitamin E level in 30 consecutive cases of children with nephrotic syndrome during the proteinuric phase of the disease and at 4 weeks after remission was induced by steroid therapy , done by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using commercial kit.Results: The present study revealed highly statistically significant difference between Serum vitamin E level during relapse with Mean ± SD 1.08 ± 0.31 and serum vitamin E level after relapse with Mean ± SD 1.62 ± 0.76 and P value 0.000 in addition, there was highly statistically significant difference found between serum vitamin E level (control group) Mean ± SD 2.43 ± 1.26 and serum vitamin E level during relapse and after relapse in (patient group) with P value 0.004.Conclusion: Vitamin E was active in performing the antioxidant function as indicated by significant depression in its level during the acute pahse followed by partial recovery during remission , it may be concluded that nephrotic syndrome in children is associated with oxidative stress

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