Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2023; 11(19): 4684-4691
Published online Jul 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i19.4684
Integrated Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of a patient with podocyte infolding glomerulopathy: A case report
Mei-Ying Chang, Yu Zhang, Ming-Xu Li, Fang Xuan
Mei-Ying Chang, Yu Zhang, Department of Nephrology, Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100091, China
Ming-Xu Li, Fang Xuan, Department of Nephrology, First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Nephrology Institute of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, State Key Laboratory of Kidney Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Diseases, Beijing Key Laboratory of Kidney Disease Research, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Chang MY performed information collection and drafted the manuscript; Chang MY, Zhang Y, Li MX, and Xuan F contributed to the literature review and manuscript preparation; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fang Xuan, MM, Attending Doctor, Department of Nephrology, First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Nephrology Institute of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, State Key Laboratory of Kidney Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Diseases, Beijing Key Laboratory of Kidney Disease Research, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Wanshou Road Subdistrict, Southern Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. xuanfangbasa@qq.com
Received: February 28, 2023
Peer-review started: February 28, 2023
First decision: May 8, 2023
Revised: May 16, 2023
Accepted: May 31, 2023
Article in press: May 31, 2023
Published online: July 6, 2023
Processing time: 122 Days and 11.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Podocyte infolding glomerulopathy (PIG) is a newly described and rare glomerular disease. To date, only approximately 40 cases have been reported globally.

CASE SUMMARY

A 26-year-old female patient presented to our hospital with a complaint of intermittent edema of both lower limbs over the past 2 years. The patient was diagnosed with PIG. She was prescribed corticosteroid therapy in other hospitals during the initial stage, to which she had responded poorly and had developed femoral head necrosis. Therefore, we administered immunosuppressants, renin-angiotensin system inhibitors, combined with traditional Chinese medicine. The patient was followed for 1 year, during which her clinical condition improved.

CONCLUSION

Integrated Chinese and Western medicine may be effective for PIG treatment, which requires active intervention to improve prognosis.

Keywords: Corticosteroid therapy, Immunosuppressive agents, Podocyte-infolding glomerulopathy, Renin-angiotensin system, Traditional Chinese medicine, Case report

Core Tip: Due to the limited number of reported cases, insufficient information on the characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of podocyte infolding glomerulopathy is available. Based on our case and those reported in PubMed, we believe that treatment with corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and renin-angiotensin system inhibitors is effective. Some patients cannot tolerate corticosteroids and immunosuppressants. When adverse effects occur, clinicians should avoid making negative treatment. Doctors should actively intervene and offer patients treatment suggestions, among which traditional Chinese medicine may be an effective treatment method.