OBJECTIVETo explore the influence factors on infectious complications in the patients with primary nephrotic syndrome in the course of using glucocorticoid and immune inhibitors.

METHODS571 hospitalized and some outpatients with primary nephrotic syndrome were retrospectively analysed from January,1992 to June,2001 to explore the relationship between the infectious complication and the dose of glucocorticoid,or the curative course of glucocorticoid, or whether glucocorticoid was united with other immune inhibitors,or the course of disease.

RESULTSThe infectious incidence increased gradually and the degree became more serious along with the increase of the glucocorticoid dose and the prolonging of the curative course. To the patients who failed in the treatment of prednisone(dose > or = 1 mg/(kg.d), curative course 1 month or so), the dose of the prednisone was reduced to 0.5 mg/(kg.d) or so and multiglycosides tripterygii wilfordii tablets or cyclophosphamide united. The infectious complications was decreased and the degree was alleviated obviously for the patients treated with this method for more than 2 months compared with those who only used prednisone(dose > or = 1 mg/(kg.d), curative course >3 month). There was no obvious difference in the infectious incidence among the groups of different course of disease before using glucocorticoid.

CONCLUSIONGlucocorticoid and immune inhibitors must be reasonably applied in order to reduce and alleviate infectious complications for treating primary nephrotic syndromes.