IgA Nephropathy: Symptoms and Prognosis

IgA Nephropathy is a kidney disorder caused by immune complexes deposition in glomeruli. It mainly affects people between 16~35 years old.

Symptoms of IgA Nephropathy

* Gross hematuria: It usually occurs a short time (24~72 hours) later after upper respiratory infection. Sometimes, the persons are also accompanied by mild systemic symptoms like muscle pain, painful urination, low fever ad back pain. The gross hematuria usually occurs frequently and it may convert to microscopic hematuria after a period.

* Microscopic hematuria with or without asymptomatic proteinuria: It is very common among children and adults.

* Proteinuria: It is usually mild and the urine protein is less than 1 gram in 24 hours. However, in a minority of cases, the persons may suffer from massive proteinuria and even Nephrotic Syndrome.

* Rapidly progressive nephritis syndrome: It is rare. The persons usually have persistent gross hematuria, massive of proteinuria. The renal function aggravates in a very short time along with edema and mild or moderate high blood pressure.
* Others: For the patients with typical clinical symptoms, they often experience intense pain in back and abdomen along with kidney stone. In this case, the disease is usually are misdiagnosed as kidney stone, pyelonephritis or acute gastroenteritis.

Prognosis of IgA Nephropathy

The following factors can influence the prognosis of IgA Nephropathy.

* The prognosis of IgA Nephropathy is poorer in male than female. What’s more, the earlier the disease starts, the worse its prognosis will be.

* For the persons with frequent gross hematuria, the prognosis is bad.

* If the persons with IgA Nephropathy develop massive proteinuria or Nephrotic Syndrome, the prognosis is not good.

* If the persons with IgA Nephropathy have a poor control of blood pressure, the prognosis is bad.


* If the pathological change in IgA Nephropathy such as crescent formation, interstitial fibrosis etc, the prognosis is bad.