Nephropathy refers to the damage, disease or pathology of the kidney. Another older term for her is nephrosis.
One cause of nephropathy is the use of long-term analgesics. Pain medicines that can cause kidney problems include aspirin, acetaminophen, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. This form of nephropathy is "chronic analgesic nephritis", a chronic inflammatory change characterized by loss and atrophy of the tubules, and interstitial fibrosis and inflammation (BRS pathology, 2nd edition).
Specifically, the long-term use of the analgesic phenacetin has been linked to renal papillary necrosis (necrotizing papillitis).
A second possible cause of nephropathy is due to the diminished function of xanthine oxidase in the pathway of purine degredation. Xanthine oxidase will degrade hypoxanthine in xanthine and then in uric acid. Because xanthine is not very soluble in water, an increase in xanthine will form crystals (which can lead to kidney stones) and result in damage to it. Drugs such as allopurinol that are used to inhibit xanthine oxidase may therefore possibly cause nephropathy.
wiki
