Evaluation of infants and children for kidney disease.

An attempt is being made to provide a logical framework for the differential diagnosis of kidney disease in children. The process is facilitated by the fact that the starting points heralding renal disease are rather limited, the great majority of the conditions presenting themselves as one of five signs or five syndromes. Within each of these categories a sequential approach permits passage from the most common diseases and innocuous methods of clinical investigation to more esoteric entities and invasive techniques.