Abstract
BACKGROUND: The development of proteinuia could be found in various glomerular disorders and is much related to the pathomorphologic changes of podocytes rather than the glomerular pattern of injury. METHODOLOGY: This is an observational electron microscopic study that included fifteen archived renal core biopsies of patients suffering from proteinuria. This work gathers detailed electron microscopic measurements of the podocytes' morphologic changes and correlated them to each other and to the level of proteinuria in patients. RESULTS: We found that the cytoskeletal change of the podocytes in the form of massive simplification and effacement (>4000 nm, as the longest dimension of a podocyte) is the leading ultrastructural feature in proteinuric patients. CONCLUSION: Future molecular projects would aid more in understanding the pathogenesis and management of proteinuria.