Treatment For Proteinuria With IgA Nephropathy

Patients of IgA nephropathy or Berger’s disease often have repeated proteinuria, hematuria, high blood pressure due to renal damages caused by immune complex deposition in glomerular mesangial areas.

If left untreated, protein level in the urine will be more and more and it will cause a lot of harms to the body and worsen renal damages. Because many tissues and substances in the body are proteins, too much protein leakage in urine can cause the loss of iron, transferrin and erythropoietin and worsen anemia.

Treatments for IgA nephropathy with proteinuria include steroids, immunosuppressants, antihypertensive drugs, proper diets and exercises.

Corticosteroids---the commonly prescribed steroids drug is prednisone. It is hormone and it has quick and obvious effects at reducing protein level in urine, but patients will develop dependence on it and long term intake of hormones can cause a lot of side effects. What is more, proteinuria is easy to relapse.

Immunosuppressant---cellcept is often used to treat proteinuria even when there is very low level of proteinuria. Cellcept is a strong immunosuppressant which works at suppressing immune system and inhibiting renal inflammatory reactions in the kidneys.

Antihypertensive drugs---proteinuria is often accompanied by high blood pressure. It is also a major risk factor for IgA nephropathy. Some blood pressure medicines such as ACEI and ARB drugs can help reduce proteinuria and protect residual kidney functions at the same time of controlling high blood pressure.

After about 1 month treatment with ACEI drugs, some patients can expect a maximum reduction of proteinuria of up to 40%-50%. But the key point is to stabilize blood pressure or proteinuria will reappear if blood pressure is fluctuating.

Proper diets

Fish oil and vitamin E have been suggested to do good for IgA nephropathy patients.

Alcohol and tobacco should be avoided.

More fresh vegetables and fruits are recommended.

Low-salt, low-fat foods are good.

Proper exercises

Proper mild-to-moderate exercises such as walking, cycling, jogging are good for IgA patients which can help control high blood pressure, high blood sugar for those that also have diabetes, build up physical fitness and enhance immunity.