Hyperlipemia in early stages of acute glomerular nephritis.

Marked hyperlipemia, involving all lipid fractions, is a regularly noted observation in the nephrotic syndrome (1). In contradistinction, the serum lipid concentration is believed to be almost unaffected in early stages of acute glomerular nephritis, even though one can find data in the literature that indicate that increased concentrations of serum cholesterol may rarely be noted (1-5). As a consequence of continued interest in the pathogenesis of the nephrotic hyperlipemia (6) we have, during the past 10 years, obtained data on serum protein and/or albumin, cholesterol and /or total lipid concentration in 111 unselected cases of acute glomerular nephritis. The results of these studies will be presented and discussed in this communication. They indicate that the aforementioned contention can no longer be accepted without modification.