A STUDY OF RENAL FUNCTION IN PATIENTS CONVALESCING FROM ACUTE FEVERS

The newer methods of functional kidney examination make it possible to secure evidence of renal disturbance formerly not obtainable. In grave and advanced forms of acute and chronic nephritis this information has proved its value. In the borderline cases, the milder disturbances of the kidney often unrevealed by older methods, we would expect functional tests to be of still greater aid in diagnosis and prognosis. The slight albuminuria of the acute infectious fevers, often accompanied by hyaline casts and commonly disappearing with the fever, may be taken as a type of the disturbances referred to. A sharp line has usually been drawn between this "febrile albuminuria" and true nephritis. It is the common impression that this accompanying albuminuria, if it disappears with or shortly after the fever, is accompanied by no important renal change and is never of serious import. It appears of value at this time to consider the