All issues > Volume 33(8); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(8):1097-1103. Published online August 31, 1990.

A Clinical Study on the Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome.

Dong Kyu Jin¹, Ja Wook Koo¹, Hae Il Cheong¹, Yong Choi¹, Kwang Wook Ko¹, Jong Hoon Lee², Young Suk Yu²

¹Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University, College of Medicine Seoul, Korea
²Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University, College of Medicine Seoul, Korea

Received: March 9, 1990;  Accepted: June 16, 1990.

Abstract

A clinical study was carried out in 73 children with nephrotic syndrome who had had regular ophthalmologic examination annually at Seoul National University Children’s Hospital from March 1976 to February 1990 with the aim of finding the relationship between the posterior subcapsular cataract (PSC) and the effect of corticosteroids. The results were summarized as follows: 1) The number of patients with PSC were 23 cases (32%), and the spontaneous reversal occurred in 3 cases (13%). 2) The presence of PSC did not show any significant relationship with follow-up period, onset age and sex ratio statistically. 3) The patients with PSC used more steroids (23.5±24.4 gm) than those without PSC (13.9±11.2 gm) (p=0.03), but the percentage of alternate dose to total dose was not different between the 2 groups. 4) The duration from the start of steroid treatment to the detection of PSC was less than 1 year in 2 cases (9%) and 3 years in 11 cases (48%). The total dose from the start of steroid treatment to the detection of PSC was less than 5 gm in 5 cases, and 20 gm in 15 cases(65%). So we could find that there was no safe dose or duration to prevent PSC in steroid treated nephrotic syndrome patients, so regular ophthalmologic examination is needed to detect the cataract early.

Keywords :Posterior Subcapsular Cataract, Steroid, Nephrotic Syndrome