In 90% of cases, neonatal Bartter syndrome is seen between 24 and 30 weeks of gestation with excess amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios). After birth, the infant is seen to urinate and drink excessively (polyuria, and polydipsia, respectively). Life-threatening dehydration may result if the infant does not receive adequate fluids. About 85% of infants dispose of excess amounts of calcium in the urine (hypercalciuria) and kidneys (nephrocalcinosis), which may lead to kidney stones. In rare occasions, the infant may progress to renal failure.

Patients with classic Bartter syndrome may have symptoms in the first two years of life, but they are usually diagnosed at school age or later. Like infants with the neonatal subtype, patients with classic Bartter syndrome also have polyuria, polydipsia, and a tendency to dehydration, but normal or just

slightly increased urinary calcium excretion without the tendency to develop kidney stones. These patients also have vomiting and growth retardation. Kidney function is also normal if the disease is treated, but occasionally patients proceed to end-stage kidney failure.

Bartter's syndrome consists of low levels of potassium in the blood, alkalosis, normal to low blood pressures, and elevated plasma renin and aldosterone. Numerous causes of this syndrome probably exist. Diagnostic pointers include high urinary potassium and chloride despite low serum values, increased plasma renin, hyperplasia of the juxtaglomerular apparatus on kidney biopsy, and careful exclusion of diuretic abuse. Excess production of prostaglandins by the kidneys is often found. Magnesium wasting may also occur. Homozygous patients suffer from severe hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis.

Bartter syndrome is a rare inherited defect in the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle. It is characterized by low potassium levels (hypokalemia), increased blood pH (alkalosis), and normal to low blood pressure. There are two types of Bartter syndrome: neonatal and classic. A closely associated disorder, Gitelman syndrome, is milder than both subtypes of Bartter syndrome.

Dent's disease often produces the following signs and symptoms:

- Extreme thirst combined with dehydration, which leads to frequent urination

- Nephrolithiasis (kidney stones)

- Hypercalciuria (high urine calcium - >300 mg/d or >4 mg/kg per d) with normal levels blood/serum calcium)

- Aminoaciduria (amino acids in urine)

- Phosphaturia (phosphate in urine)

- Glycosuria (glucose in urine)

- Kaliuresis (potassium in urine)

- Hyperuricosuria (excessive amounts of uric acid in the urine)

- Impaired urinary acidification

- Rickets

In a study of 25 patients with Dent's disease, 9 of 15 men, and one of 10 women suffered end-stage kidney disease by the age of 47.

It can be asymptomatic, but these symptoms may be present:

- Fatigue

- Headache

- High blood pressure

- Hypokalemia

- Hypernatraemia

- Hypomagnesemia

- Intermittent or temporary paralysis

- Muscle spasms

- Muscle weakness

- Numbness

- Polyuria

- Polydipsia

- Tingling

- Metabolic alkalosis

Type 4 RTA is not actually a tubular disorder at all nor does it have a clinical syndrome similar to the other types of RTA described above. It was included in the classification of renal tubular acidoses as it is associated with a mild (normal anion gap) metabolic acidosis due to a "physiological" reduction in proximal tubular ammonium excretion (impaired ammoniagenesis), which is secondary to hypoaldosteronism, and results in a decrease in urine buffering capacity. Its cardinal feature is hyperkalemia, and measured urinary acidification is normal, hence it is often called hyperkalemic RTA or tubular hyperkalemia.

Causes include:

- Aldosterone deficiency (hypoaldosteronism): Primary vs. hyporeninemic (including diabetic nephropathy)

- Aldosterone resistance

1. Drugs: NSAIDs, ACE inhibitors and ARBs, Eplerenone, Spironolactone, Trimethoprim, Pentamidine

2. Pseudohypoaldosteronism

Familial hyperaldosteronism is a group of inherited conditions in which the adrenal glands, which are small glands located on top of each kidney, produce too much of the hormone aldosterone. Excess aldosterone causes the kidneys to retain more salt than normal, which in turn increases the body's fluid levels and causes high blood pressure. People with familial hyperaldosteronism may develop severe high blood pressure, often early in life. Without treatment, hypertension increases the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and kidney failure. There are other forms of hyperaldosteronism that are not inherited.

Familial hyperaldosteronism is categorized into three types, distinguished by their clinical features and genetic causes. In familial hyperaldosteronism type I, hypertension generally appears in childhood to early adulthood and can range from mild to severe. This type can be treated with steroid medications called glucocorticoids, so it is also known as glucocorticoid-remediable aldosteronism (GRA). In familial hyperaldosteronism type II, hypertension usually appears in early to middle adulthood and does not improve with glucocorticoid treatment. In most individuals with familial hyperaldosteronism type III, the adrenal glands are enlarged up to six times their normal size. These affected individuals have severe hypertension that starts in childhood. The hypertension is difficult to treat and often results in damage to organs such as the heart and kidneys. Rarely, individuals with type III have milder symptoms with treatable hypertension and no adrenal gland enlargement.

This condition is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, which means one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder. The various types of familial hyperaldosteronism have different genetic causes.

It is unclear how common these diseases are. All together they appear to make up less than 1% of cases of hyperaldosteronism.

Because renal excretion is the primary means of eliminating acid from the body, there is consequently a tendency towards acidemia.

This leads to the clinical features of dRTA:

- Normal anion gap metabolic acidosis/acidemia

- Hypokalemia

- Urinary stone formation (related to alkaline urine, hypercalciuria, and low urinary citrate).

- Nephrocalcinosis (deposition of calcium in the substance of the kidney)

- Bone demineralisation (causing rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults)

The symptoms and sequelae of dRTA are variable and range from being completely asymptomatic, to loin pain and hematuria from kidney stones, to failure to thrive and severe rickets in childhood forms as well as possible renal failure and even death.

dRTA commonly leads to sodium loss and volume contraction, which causes a compensatory increase in blood levels of aldosterone. Aldosterone causes increased resorption of sodium and loss of potassium in the collecting duct of the kidney, so these increased aldosterone levels cause the hypokalemia which is a common symptom of dRTA.

Most cases of familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia are asymptomatic. Laboratory signs of FHH include:

- Hypercalcemia

- Hypocalciuria ( Ca excretion rate < 0.02 mmol/L)

- Hypermagnesemia

- High normal to mildly elevated parathyroid hormone

Proximal RTA (pRTA) is caused by a failure of the proximal tubular cells to reabsorb filtered bicarbonate from the urine, leading to urinary bicarbonate wasting and subsequent acidemia. The distal intercalated cells function normally, so the acidemia is less severe than dRTA and the alpha intercalated cells can produce H to acidify the urine to a pH of less than 5.3. pRTA also has several causes, and may occasionally be present as a solitary defect, but is usually associated with a more generalized dysfunction of the proximal tubular cells called Fanconi syndrome, in which there is also phosphaturia, glycosuria, aminoaciduria, uricosuria, and tubular proteinuria.

The principle feature of Fanconi syndrome is bone demineralization (osteomalacia or rickets) due to phosphate wasting.

Hyperaldosteronism, also aldosteronism, is a medical condition wherein too much aldosterone is produced by the adrenal glands, which can lead to lowered levels of potassium in the blood (hypokalemia) and increased hydrogen ion excretion (alkalosis).

This cause of mineralocorticoid excess is primary hyperaldosteronism reflecting excess production of aldosterone by adrenal zona glomerulosa. Bilateral micronodular hyperplasia is more common than unilateral adrenal adenoma.

Dent's disease (or Dent disease) is a rare X-linked recessive inherited condition that affects the proximal renal tubules of the kidney. It is one cause of Fanconi syndrome, and is characterized by tubular proteinuria, excess calcium in the urine, formation of calcium kidney stones, nephrocalcinosis, and chronic kidney failure.

"Dent's disease" is often used to describe an entire group of familial disorders, including X-linked recessive nephrolithiasis with kidney failure, X-linked recessive hypophosphatemic rickets, and both Japanese and idiopathic low-molecular-weight proteinuria. About 60% of patients have mutations in the "CLCN5" gene (Dent 1), which encodes a kidney-specific chloride/proton antiporter, and 15% of patients have mutations in the "OCRL1" gene (Dent 2).

People often have few or no symptoms. They may get occasional muscular weakness, muscle spasms, tingling sensations, or excessive urination.

High blood pressure, manifestations of muscle cramps (due to hyperexcitability of neurons secondary to low blood calcium), muscle weakness (due to hypoexcitability of skeletal muscles secondary to hypokalemia), and headaches (due to low blood potassium or high blood pressure) may be seen.

Secondary hyperaldosteronism is often related to decreased cardiac output which is associated with elevated renin levels.

Blood levels of parathryoid hormone (PTH) are undetectable, but the mutation in the PTHR1 leads to auto-activation of the signaling as though the hormone PTH is present. Severe JMC produces a dwarfing phenotype, or short stature. Examination of the bone reveals normal epiphyseal plates but disorganized metaphyseal regions. Hypercalcemia (elevated levels of calcium in the blood) and hypophosphatemia (reduced blood levels of phosphate), and elevated urinary calcium and phosphate are generally found in JMC. The absence of hypercalcemia does not eliminate the disease from consideration.

Physical irregularities often associated with Jansen's include: prominent or protruding eyes, a high-arched palate, micrognathia or abnormal smallness of the jaws – particularly the lower (mandible) jaw, choanal stenosis, wide cranial sutures and irregular formation of the long bones which can resemble rickets. Nephrocalcinosis (accumulation of calcium in the interstitum of the kidney) is seen commonly as well.

Distal renal tubular acidosis (dRTA) or Type 1 renal tubular acidosis (RTA) is the classical form of RTA, being the first described. Distal RTA is characterized by a failure of acid secretion by the alpha intercalated cells of the cortical collecting duct of the distal nephron. This failure of acid secretion may be due to a number of causes, and it leads to an inability to acidify the urine to a pH of less than 5.3.

Familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH) is a condition that can cause hypercalcemia, a serum calcium level typically above 10.2 mg/dL. It is also known as familial benign hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FBHH) where there is usually a family history of hypercalcemia which is mild, a urine calcium to creatinine ratio <0.01, and urine calcium <200 mg/day.

Though this condition is usually asymptomatic, if symptoms are present they are usually related to the causative process, (e.g. hypercalcemia). Some of the sympotoms that can happen are blood in the urine, fever and chills, nausea and vomiting, severe pain in the belly area, flanks of the back, groin, or testicles.

These include renal colic, polyuria and polydipsia:

- Renal colic is usually caused by pre-existing nephrolithiasis, as may occur in patients with chronic hypercalciuria. Less commonly, it can result from calcified bodies moving into the calyceal system.

- Nocturia, polyuria, and polydipsia from reduced urinary concentrating capacity (i.e. nephrogenic diabetes insipidus) as can be seen in hypercalcemia, medullary nephrocalcinosis of any cause, or in children with Bartter syndrome in whom essential tubular salt reabsorption is compromised.

There are several causes of nephrocalcinosis that are typically acute and present only with renal failure. These include tumor lysis syndrome, acute phosphate nephropathy, and occasional cases of enteric hyperoxaluria.

These conditions can cause nephrocalcinosis in association with hypercalciuria without hypercalcemia:

- Distal renal tubular acidosis

- Medullary sponge kidney

- Neonatal nephrocalcinosis and loop diuretics

- Inherited tubulopathies

- Chronic hypokalemia

- Beta thalassemia

Diagnosis typically occurs during the first 6 months of life due to characteristic neurological symptoms. These symptoms include muscle spasms, tetany, and seizures. Laboratory testing indicates hypomagnesemia (decreased serum magnesium levels), hypocalcemia (decreased serum calcium levels), and little to no measurable parathyroid hormone levels. Diagnosis is confirmed with these symptoms and can be further solidified with genetic sequencing of the TRPM6 gene.

Primary aldosteronism, also known as primary hyperaldosteronism or Conn's syndrome, is excess production of the hormone aldosterone by the adrenal glands resulting in low renin levels. Often it produces few symptoms. Most people have high blood pressure which may cause poor vision or headaches. Occasionally there may be muscular weakness, muscle spasms, tingling sensations, or excessive urination. Complications include cardiovascular disease such as stroke, myocardial infarction, kidney failure, and abnormal heart rhythms.

Primary hyperaldosteronism has a number of causes. About 66% of cases are due to enlargement of both adrenal glands and 33% of cases are due to an adrenal adenoma that produces aldosterone. Other uncommon causes include adrenal cancer and an inherited disorder called familial hyperaldosteronism. Some recommend screening people with high blood pressure who are at increased risk while others recommend screening all people with high blood pressure for the disease. Screening is usually done by measuring the aldosterone-to-renin ratio in the blood with further testing used to confirm positive results. While low blood potassium is classically described this is only present in about a quarter of people. To determine the underlying cause medical imaging is carried out.

Some cases may be cured by removing the adenoma by surgery. A single adrenal gland may also be removed in cases where only one is enlarged. In cases due to enlargement of both glands treatment is typically with medications known as aldosterone antagonists such as spironolactone or eplerenone. Other medications for high blood pressure and a low salt diet may also be needed. Some people with familial hyperaldosteronism may be treated with the steroid dexamethasone.

Primary aldosteronism is present in about 10% of people with high blood pressure. It occurs more often in women than men. Often it begins in those between 30 and 50 years of age. Conn's syndrome is named after Jerome W. Conn (1907–1994), the American endocrinologist who first described adenomas as a cause of the condition in 1955.

The signs and symptoms of primary hyperparathyroidism are those of hypercalcemia. They are classically summarized by "stones, bones, abdominal groans, thrones and psychiatric overtones".

- "Stones" refers to kidney stones, nephrocalcinosis, and diabetes insipidus (polyuria and polydipsia). These can ultimately lead to renal failure.

- "Bones" refers to bone-related complications. The classic bone disease in hyperparathyroidism is osteitis fibrosa cystica, which results in pain and sometimes pathological fractures. Other bone diseases associated with hyperparathyroidism are osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and arthritis.

- "Abdominal groans" refers to gastrointestinal symptoms of constipation, indigestion, nausea and vomiting. Hypercalcemia can lead to peptic ulcers and acute pancreatitis. The peptic ulcers can be an effect of increased gastric acid secretion by hypercalcemia.

- "Thrones" refers to polyuria and constipation

- "Psychiatric overtones" refers to effects on the central nervous system. Symptoms include lethargy, fatigue, depression, memory loss, psychosis, ataxia, delirium, and coma.

Left ventricular hypertrophy may also be seen.

Other signs include proximal muscle weakness, itching, and band keratopathy of the eyes.

When subjected to formal research, symptoms of depression, pain, and gastric dysfunction seem to correlate with mild cases of hypercalcemia.

Hypomagnesemia with secondary hypocalcemia (HSH) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder affecting intestinal magnesium absorption. Decreased intestinal magnesium reabsorption and the resulting decrease in serum magnesium levels is believed to cause lowered parathyroid hormone (PTH) output by the parathyroid gland. This results in decreased PTH and decreased serum calcium levels (hypocalcemia). This manifests in convulsions and spasms in early infancy which, if left untreated, can lead to mental retardation or death. HSH is caused by mutations in the TRPM6 gene.

Medullary sponge kidney (also known as Cacchi–Ricci disease) is a congenital disorder of the kidneys characterized by cystic dilatation of the collecting tubules in one or both kidneys. Individuals with medullary sponge kidney are at increased risk for kidney stones and urinary tract infection (UTI). Patients with MSK typically pass twice as many stones per year as do other stone formers without MSK. While described as a "benign" disorder with a low morbidity rate, as many as 10% of patients with MSK have an increased risk of morbidity associated with frequent stones and UTIs. While some patients report increased chronic kidney pain, the source of the pain, when a UTI or blockage is not present, is unclear at this time. Renal colic (flank and back pain) is present in 55% of patients. Women with MSK experience more stones, UTIs, and complications than men. MSK was previously believed not to be hereditary but there is more evidence coming forth that may indicate otherwise.

Jansen's metaphyseal chondrodysplasia (JMC) is a disease that results from ligand-independent activation of the type 1 of the parathyroid hormone receptor (PTHR1), due to one of three reported mutations (activating mutation).

JMC is extremely rare, and as of 2007 there are fewer than 20 reported cases worldwide.

Complications associated with medullary sponge kidney include the following:

- Kidney stones

- Urinary tract infection (UTI)

- Blood in the urine

- Distal renal tubular acidosis (Type 1 RTA)

- Chronic kidney disease (rarely)

- Marked chronic pain

Abnormal heart rhythms and asystole are possible complications of hypermagnesemia related to the heart. Magnesium acts as a physiologic calcium blocker, which results in electrical conduction abnormalities within the heart.

Clinical consequences related to serum concentration:

- 4.0 mEq/l decreased reflexes

- >5.0 mEq/l Prolonged atrioventricular conduction

- >10.0 mEq/l Complete heart block

- >13.0 mEq/l Cardiac arrest

Note that the therapeutic range for the prevention of the pre-eclampsic uterine contractions is: 4.0-7.0 mEq/L. As per Lu and Nightingale, serum Mg concentrations associated with maternal toxicity (also neonate depression - hypotonia and low Apgar scores) are:

- 7.0-10.0 mEq/L - loss of patellar reflex

- 10.0-13.0 mEq/L - respiratory depression

- 15.0-25.0 mEq/L - altered atrioventricular conduction and (further) complete heart block

- >25.0 mEq/L - cardiac arrest