Frequency of antineurtophil cytoplasmic antibody in glomerulonephritis

Aim of the study was to determine the frequency of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody [ANCA] [p-ANCA and c-ANCA] in clinically diagnosed glomerulonephritis. Autoimmune diseases including systemic vasculitis, affect a large number of people ill whom the leading cause of morbidity and mortality is glomerulonephritis that is often associated with chronic kidney disease. There are many risk factors for kidney diseases such as chronic inflammation, auto-immune diseases, immunosuppressive therapy, etc. Early phases of renal injury in autoimmune patients are clinically silent. For the detection of nephron damage, histopathological examination is gold standard but detection of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody [ANCA] can be used to find out early nephron damage. Design was analytical Cross-sectional. The study was conducted at the Department of Immunology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore in a period of November 2008 to October 2009. Study included 64 clinically diagnosed of glomerulonephritis. Levels of ANCA [MPO and PR3] were determined by ELISA technique. Out of which four [6.25%] patients showed positive reaction to myeloperoxidase [MPO] antigen while1 [1.56%] patient was positive for proteinase-3 [PR3] antigen. In 40-60 years of patients, sero-positivity for MPO and PR3 was 14% and 3.6% respectively, p-value for MPO and PR3 was <0.05 and >0.05 respectively. We concluded that glomerulonephritis is better related with MPO-ANCA than PR3-ANCA. The difference in the levels of MPO-ANCA in different age groups was significant but it was non-significant among different genders. Difference in the levels of PR3-ANCA was not significant for both age and gender

Percutaneous renal biopsy by automated biospsy gun

To study the safety and efficacy of automated biopsy gun in obtaining the renal tissue by percutaneous renal biopsy. Design: Single centered prospective hospital based study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medicine, Unit II, Lahore General Hospital, Lahore for more than one year from January 2000 to February 2001. Subjects and Forty patients of either gender having clinical features of renal disease with overt proteinuria were included in the study. An informed consent was taken from patients. Patients were lied prone, local anaesthesia was given at lower pole of left kidney. Renal biopsy was performed under ultrasound guidance, using 18G spring loaded automated biopsy gun. Majority of patients, 28[70%], was male. The mean age was 26.9 years with range of 5-70 years. In 37 [97.5%] patients successful biopsy was done while there was its failure in 3 [7.5%] patients. The average core length of renal tissue obtained was Mean'SD [1.02'0.34] cm with a mean number of glomeruli per core Mean'SD [7.76'2.36] and histopathological diagnosis was made in all cases. Total number of attempts were 1-3. In 70% patients single attempt was done. No major complication related to the procedure was seen. Renal biopsy with automated biopsy gun is relatively safe and effective in establishing the diagnosis of renal diseases. Although renal biopsy can be done on outpatient basis, it is better to observe the patients for 24 hours post-operatively for any complication