Hello,

Our 16 yos had a sports physical in the fall and a routine urine test. His protein levels were high, but they thought it may of been due to exercise prior to the test.

He just did a 24 hour urine and the results came back 1629 normal range 140.

He has an appointment in a few weeks with a specialist, but until that time I was wondering if anyone else has had levels this high and what your doc has had to say....

Thanks,
cm

Hi, cm. I do hope that whatever is wrong with your son's kidneys will resolve itself and have a good outcome. Like they said at the time, there are temporary reasons for a high protein count, like exercise (which breaks down cells and puts protein into the bloodstream and some into the urine once the blood is filtered through the kidneys) and infection. But since this situation has not cleared up in the months since it first occured, it is likely that some underlying chronic condition is responsible for the continued high protein count. The list could include diabetes, nephritis and kidney disease, chronic high blood pressure, some sort of immune disorder, and some others that I can't think of. I have lupus, which is an immune disorder that caused my immune system to attack my kidneys, and had protein readings above 3,000 because of moderate damage to my kidneys (nephritis). After treatment with steriods for almost a year, my readings are now below 600 and continue to fall.

From what I have read (and personal experience), getting protein loss under control (if it can be done at all) may take many months or more than a year of treatment to get the kidneys back to a healthy enough state to filter more properly. Depending on what the source of the problem is, there are various treatments, steriods and other drugs to suppress the body's attack on the kidneys (CellCept, chemotherapy-type drugs), and treatments for underlying diabetes and/or high blood pressure.

For there to be large amounts of protein in the urine, the filters of the kidneys (glomerulus) must have holes in them large enough to let the big proteins out of the blood and into the urine where they don't belong. The holes are normally too small for hardly any protein to get out of the blood, so if the protein is there, something has damaged or stretched the holes. Could be temporary, but it might be permanent. Don't be surprised if they want to do a kidney biopsy to assess the state of your son's kidney, in which they basically go through the lower back and take a punch out of a kidney to look at. Scary thought, but it is a minor procedure with minimal pain and truly invaluable in seeing what is wrong in there. Best wishes to you and your son as you look for what disorder or disease has caused this to occur.