What is nephrotic syndrome?

  Nephrotic syndrome is a group of clinical syndromes caused by increased permeability of the glomerular basement membrane from a variety of causes, resulting in the loss of large amounts of protein from the urine within the plasma.  It has four major features (three highs and one low): 1. Massive proteinuria: it refers to urinary protein qualitative >+++ and 24-hour urinary protein quantitative >50mg/kg; 2. Hypoalbuminemia: it refers to plasma albumin <25g/L; 3. Hyperlipidemia: it refers to blood cholesterol >5.7mmol/L; 4. Edema: it mostly starts in the eyes and gradually spreads to the lower limbs and the whole body in a depressed manner, and severe cases may have pleural fluid, ascites.