Bartter’s Syndrome in 1999

Overview

Advances in pathophysiological knowledge, and in particular results of molecular biology, made its possible toassemble recently new findings on Bartter’s syndrome. At present the view is generally accepted that thistubulopathy is not unique but that it is a heterogeneous group of diseases associated with impaired renal electrolytetransport. This is also the reason for the changing terminology of this tubular dysfunction. The term used recentlyin clinical practice is „Bartter-like syndromes“.The submitted paper presents a review on modern findings pertaining to this nephropathy, the terminology ofwhich may be yet altered in future on the basis of new analyses of nephrologically oriented molecular biology whichmay extend the hitherto known spectrum of four genes coding electrolyte transport in distal portions of the nephronby the discovery of new ones.

Key words:
Bartter’s syndrome, Bartter-like syndromes, tubulopathy