Clinical and histological characteristics of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis in patients treated at a general hospital

Objectives: Assessing the clinical and histological characteristics of patients with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) treated at a gene ral hospital. Methods: The kidney biopsies conducted at Hospital Nacional Arzobispo Loayza between 1998 and 2008 were evaluated. RPGN was histologically determined when the biopsy had more than 50% of epithelial crescents. The following information was recorded: age, gender, kidney syndrome present (kidney fai- lure, nephritic syndrome, nephrotic syndrome, arterial hypertension); immune parameters (antinuclear antibodies, anti DNA antibodies, ANCA, complement 3, anti GBM antibodies and ESR) and histological parameters (epithelial or fibroepithelial crescent percentage, interstitial infiltrates and tubular atrophy). In order to describe the results, measures of central tendency and standard deviation were used. Results: RPGN accounted for 2.72% of kidney biopsies. The average age was 33.77±11.7years. The ave rage creatinine at entry was 4.5 ± 4.8 (0.5 - 26.0)mg/dl. There was a 59.3% of patients with HTN; 48.1% had nephrotic syndrome and 48.1% had nephritic syndrome. There was a 52.7% of ANCA-positive cases, and 60% experienced C3 decrease. The crescent percentage was 71.2%. The interstitial infiltrate and the tubular atrophy were mild in 63 and 74% of the patients, respectively. The most frequent causes for RPGN were systemic lupus erythematosus (44.4%) and vasculitis (37%). Average length of stay in hospital was 30 days. A 51.8% of the patients required hemodialysis and 33% continued with hemodialysis upon discharge. Conclusions: RPGN is a rare disease at our hospital, and the most frequent cause for it was SLE.