The Nature and Treatment of Chronic Parenchymatous Nephritis (Nephrosis)

The term "chronic parenchymatous nephritis" is ordinarily applied to a variety of renal diseases which pathologically may be widely different in character. Thus cases of chronic diffuse nephritis, of amyloid kidney and of chronic nephrosis are grouped under a single heading. According to modern conceptions, chronic diffuse nephritis constitutes an inflammatory process involving all the kidney structures—glomeruli, tubules and interstitium; the other types represent degenerative processes, in one of which (chronic nephrosis), the lesion chiefly affects the tubules, and is not at all inflammatory. The reason for the use of a single term in designating such distinct pathologic conditions is the fact that clinically these cases have a number of features in common: the oliguria, the intense albuminuria, and the edema. Certain diagnostic criteria have been established for differentiating one variety from another.1 Thus in chronic nephrosis, it is said, the urine is free from formed blood elements and the