Glomerular permeability to high molecular weight dextrans in acute ischaemic renal failure and postural proteinuria.

1. Renal permeability to dextran of a molecular weight range approximating to that of the plasma proteins has been studied in six patients with acute ischaemic renal failure, four patients with postural proteinuria and six healthy subjects. 2. Results are expressed in terms of dextran selectivity indices which relate the clearance of dextran to its molecular weight. Indices of dextran selectivity were found to be high in acute ischaemic renal failure, postural proteinuria and in normal subjects. Comparable indices of plasma protein selectivity in these groups were low. 3. It is suggested that in postural proteinuria and acute ischaemic renal failure the proteinuria is not glomerular in origin, and that in these conditions macromolecules are filtered quite normally and urinary protein arises from a post glomerular source characterized by a lack of selectivity.