Why does albuminuria cause edema

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Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Ferri FF. Proteins in the blood tend to pull water into our blood vessels acting like a "water magnet". When the level of protein in the blood is low, water may leave the blood vessels and collect in the tissues.

Water in the tissues is called "edema". Critically ill patients develop edema for many reasons. A low albumin level can cause edema or increase the amount of edema from other causes. Edema fluid tends to travel in a pattern that matches gravity. This is called dependent edema. Individuals who are standing or walking will develop more edema around the ankles the fluid "sinks" to the dependent areas. Patients lying in bed will develop more edema in their tailbone region or toward the back lobes of the lungs.

During critical illness, edema can often become so severe that the patient's whole body becomes swollen and distorted looking. Edema fluid may even begin to weep from the skin surface. This seepage of fluid has a yellowish appearance, similar to the water portion of the blood called plasma.

Therefore, the primary event responsible for the sodium retention is a renal intrinsic excretory defect, which leads to extracellular fluid expansion and edema formation.

Therapy is specific for the specific glomerular disease and symptomatic for the edema diuretics , anticoagulation therapy for prevention of venous thrombosis and embolism, antibiotics for infections, and most of all, omission of triggering factors such as specific xenobiotics.

Abstract If proteinuria is of sufficient amount, and persists for long enough, then a series of consequences arises which is called the nephrotic syndrome. Publication types English Abstract.