Obesity Related Glomerulopathy in a Pediatrics Population

Background: The presence of proteinuria as a complication of massive obesity was first reported in 1974, since then several cases have been subsequently described. Currently, this renal complication is known as obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG). ORG is defined as a proteinuric renal disease in obese patients with the absence of other known renal diseases both clinically and histopathologically. Our goal is to assess the incidence of ORG in children.

Methods: The study population included pediatric patients that were enrolled at the pediatric department of a secondary medical center in Israel, who had the diagnosis of morbid obesity during the years 2003-2020. Percentile of Body Mass Index was calculated for each child according to pediatric curves. For each child we collected data regarding severity of obesity, presence of proteinuria, hypertension -if diagnosis existed-, metabolic syndrome, renal function, and demographic information.

Findings: About 265 children had a diagnosis of morbid obesity, their mean age was 12.9. about 75% of the obese children had a diagnosis of hypertension. About 43% of children were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. Morbid obesity was related to hypertension (p value

Conclousions: We found that the incidence of proteinuria in obese children isn`t a rare finding. In addition, we`ve found a relation between the existence of metabolic syndrome and proteinuria. We didn`t find a relation between severity of obesity and proteinuria.