Renal Disease in Adult Indians: A Clinicopathological Study of 2827 Patients

Nephrotic syndrome was the commonest clinical presentation among 2827 consecutive adult Indian patients from whom adequate kidney biopsies were obtained for suspected renal disease. In 83 per cent of cases the nephrotic syndrome was due to minimal change disease, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis, membranous usually secondary to tuberculosis or leprosy, was present in only 34 patients. Acute nephritis, the next most frequent clinical presentation, was due to diffuse endocapillary proliferative, crescentic or mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis in 88 per cent of cases, almost half of whom had elevated serum streptococcal antibody titres. Eosinophilia showed a highly significant association with diffuse endocapillary proliferative and mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis. Idiopathic IgA nephropathy was present in only 10, and antiglomerular basement membrane antibody disease in only one, of the 238 patients whose biopsies were studied by immunofluorescence. Complications of pregnancy accounted for 70 per cent of cases of cortical necrosis. Acute gastroenteritis, septicaemia, abortions, snake bite and allopathic and indigenous medicines were important causes of acute tubular necrosis.