From Evidence-based Medicine Treatment Of Iga Nephropathy

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) has so far turned out to be the most common form of primary glomerulonephritis around the world. Its major presenting symptom is haematuria, with or without proteinuria. IgAN was initially considered to be a benign disease but results of long-term follow-up studies have shown that it is slowly progressive and about 25% to 50% of the patients developing end stage renal failure after 20 years. Its aetiology and pathogenesis are still unclear. A universally accepted therapeutic treatment program has not been established yet. So far many of the studies dealing with IgAN treatment are retrospective, lack statistical significance, or have some mistakes in designs.In the first part of my review, I introduce a number of well-designed randomized controlled trails, which have been performed, and reviews currently available therapeutic options for IgAN. In this part, I attempt to answer several important questions: Why d o We treat patients with IgAN? How do we decide which patients should be treated? What is the role of specific therapy such as fish oils, tonsillectomy, and immunosuppression in the treatment of patient with IgAN?In the second part of my review, I mainly focus on the development of differentiation and treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine. After reviewing the relative literatures, I think that Chinese herbal is effective in treating the patients with IgAN, but there is still some limitation in the clinical trails.