Persistent infection as a cause of renal disease in patients submitted to renal biopsy: a report from the Glomerulonephritis Registry of the United Kingdom MRC
Jones, J.M.; Davison, A.M.
Quarterly Journal of Medicine 58(226): 123-132
1986
ISSN/ISBN: 0033-5622 PMID: 3714966 Document Number: 270534
We report the results of a survey within the United Kingdom of the importance of persistent systemic infection in patients with unexplained renal disease who undergo renal biopsy. Twenty-two units participated. Overall 1.7 per cent of patients undergoing biopsy had an infection but there was large variation between units. Interstitial nephritis and amyloid deposits were more common in patients with infection, and minimal change nephropathy was less common than in patients undergoing biopsy but without infection. The respiratory tract was the most common site of infection but was rarely associated with glomerulonephritis of which the most common cause was infective endocarditis. Drug treatment may have caused the renal lesion in 16 per cent of patients. Amyloid deposits, present in 13.6 per cent of patients, was the most common cause of progressive renal failure. Most other patients had some improvement in renal function once the putative cause, whether infection or antibiotic, was removed.