As a matter of fact, in most cases of waxy kidneys we simply make the diagnosis of chronic diffuse nephritis, and if we add to this that of waxy infiltration it is because the patients have had syphilis or bone or joint disease. Even in this way we are often enough deceived, as in the following case:
A woman, twenty-six years old, came into the hospital on January 25, 1876. She had contracted syphilis five years before. For two years she had suffered from dyspnoea and frontal headache. For seven months there was occasional oedema of the face and feet. At the time of her admission to the hospital she was very pale and anæmic; the urine was of a specific gravity of 1008, abundant, and contained no albumen or casts. The liver was very large and smooth. It was supposed that she had waxy liver and kidneys. She grew steadily weaker, continued to have a little oedema, vomited occasionally, developed the physical signs of bronchitis, with a temperature of 104° Fahr., and died on April 3, 1876. At the autopsy the aortic valves were found thin and insufficient. There was muco-pus in both the large and small bronchi, with irregular spots of red hepatization in the lung. The liver and spleen were large and waxy. The kidneys weighed together four ounces, and presented the ordinary lesions of atrophied kidneys, with only commencing waxy infiltrations of a few of the Malpighian tufts.
The Large White Kidney of Heart Disease.—This variety of chronic diffuse nephritis seems to be secondary to organic disease of the heart, and, less frequently, to emphysema of the lungs. The urine is diminished in amount, sometimes suppressed; it is dark-colored, the specific gravity varies between 1010 and 1030; albumen is absent altogether or present in small amount; hyaline and granular casts may be present, but are not constant. Dropsy may be absent or moderate or excessive. Cerebral symptoms—vomiting, cough, dyspnoea, anæmia—are usually present. Some of the patients die suddenly, some with dropsy, some with urgent dyspnoea.
The examples of chronic diffuse nephritis which are neither atrophied kidneys nor large white kidneys are numerous. Some of them give the clinical history of the large white kidneys, some that of the atrophied kidneys, some do not correspond to that of either; but they all exhibit some of the characteristic symptoms of chronic nephritis—changes in the urine, dyspnoea, vomiting, cerebral symptoms, dropsy, anæmia.
The following histories will show the course of the disease in some of these cases:
Case 1.—A male, forty years old, came into hospital on October 9, 1881. The patient was a beer-drinker, but denied rheumatism and syphilis. He said that he had been perfectly well until fourteen months before; then he had an attack of lobar pneumonia which confined him to the house for four weeks. Since that time he has never felt as well and has had occasional dyspnoea. Nine months ago the dyspnoea became so troublesome that he had to give up work, and he also began to suffer from severe headaches. Three weeks ago the urine became scanty and dropsy appeared in the legs and scrotum. When admitted to the hospital the patient was large and fat. There was dropsy of the legs and of the scrotum, marked dyspnoea, sibillant râles over both lungs; 10 ounces of urine in twenty-four hours, specific gravity 1023, albumen 10 per cent., hyaline and epithelial casts. The urine on Oct. 12 was 13 ounces; on Oct. 14, 42 ounces; on Oct. 18, 54 ounces. On this last day he had several convulsions, became comatose, and died October 19. At the autopsy the pia mater was thickened and there was an increase of serum beneath it. The heart weighed fourteen ounces, the aortic and mitral valves were a little thickened, the walls of the ventricles were unnaturally hard. In the lungs there were a few old hard miliary tubercles. The kidneys weighed sixteen ounces, surfaces smooth, capsules not adherent, cortex and pyramids of red color, urates in the pyramids. The cortex-tubes showed marked changes in their epithelium, but the Malpighian bodies, stroma, and arteries were nearly normal.
Case 2.—A female, forty-five years old, was admitted to the hospital December 5, 1881. Denied rheumatism, syphilis, and intemperance. She had considered herself strong and well until two months before. Then she had a sudden attack of dyspnoea, dizziness, faintness, and cardiac palpitation. After this she was never well, complained of pain about the heart, headache, attacks of dyspnoea, dropsy of the face, hands, and feet. The urine was scanty and dark-colored. She is now emaciated and anæmic, has moderate oedema of the legs, complains of dyspnoea, headache, and nausea. The heart's action is feeble and irregular, and there is a presystolic murmur. On December 19 she vomited blood. On January 2 she had a chill, followed by a temperature of 102°. On January 5 she became drowsy, then had twitchings of the muscles of the face; became semi-comatose, and died January 11. While she was in the hospital the urine varied in amount from 1 to 6 ounces daily; it contained a very large amount of albumen and a few hyaline casts. After death the pia mater looked sodden and finely granular. The walls of its arteries were a little thickened, and there were little clumps of endothelial cells on its outer surface. The mitral valve of the heart was thickened and stenosed. The kidneys were of medium size, their capsules slightly adherent, their surfaces finely nodular, the cortex of normal thickness, red mottled with yellow spots. There was an extensive growth of diffuse connective tissue separating the tubes both in the cortex and pyramids. The tubes were large and contained much cast-matter. Most of the Malpighian bodies were normal.
COMPLICATIONS.—The most frequent complication of chronic diffuse nephritis is disease of the heart. We find cardiac lesions and renal lesions associated in three different ways:
1. Valvular lesions or dilatation of the ventricles produce chronic congestion of the kidney, with its changes into parenchymatous or diffuse nephritis or the large white kidney of cardiac disease.
2. Chronic diffuse nephritis is followed by the development of hypertrophy of the left ventricle. This may occur with all the varieties of chronic diffuse nephritis, but is most common with the atrophied kidneys.