The Clinical Observation of Glomerulonephritis in the Elderly

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The glomerulonephritis appears in various clinical presentations. Renal biopsy is important diagnostic tool for treatment decision and prognosis prediction of glomerulonephritis. We tried to study on the clinical presentations of glomerulonephritis through histopathological findings and treatment responses in elderly patients. METHODS: We made an retrospective analysis in elderly patients aged over 60 years performed renal biopsy in our medical center from January 1991 to February 2005. RESULTS: Of all the 42 patients, the mean age of the patients was 64.6+/-3.5 years, 24 male and 18 female patients were included(1.31). Patients aged 60-64 years (n=26, 62%) were majority. On clinical indications of renal biopsies, 17 patients had nephrotic syndrome, 10 had asymptomatic urinary abnormality, 5 had gross hematuria, and 5 had acute azotemia. The results of renal biopsies presented that 30 patients (71%) had primary glomerulonephritis, 9 patients (22%) had secondary glomerulonephritis. Among primary glomerulonephritis, membranous nephropathy (n=10) was most common, followed by IgA nephropathy (n=7),focal segmental glomerulos-clerosis (n=3), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (n=2), and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (n=2). In secondary glomer-ulonephritis, there were diabetic nephropathy (n=2), lupus nephritis (n=2), cancer-related nephritis (n=2), poststreptococcal glomer-ulonephritis (n=1), Henoch-Schonlein nephritis (n=1), amyloidosis (n=1). In the cases of nephrotic syndrome, primary nephrotic syndrome (n=12, 71%) is more prevalent than secondary nephrotic syndrome (n=3, 18%). The most common cause of primary nephrotic syndrome was membranous nephropathy (n=8). The causes of asymptomatic urinary abnormality were IgA nephropathy (n=4), lupus nephritis (n=2), membranous nephropathy (n=1), mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (n=1). By the complications of renal biopsy, only a few patients presented new-onset hematuria, hematoma, aggravation of hypertension, but, severe complication including an infection or a death was none. 8 of 12 patients with primary nephrotic syndrome were treated, 5 patients of those were shown complete response (n=3) or partial response (n=2). CONCLUSION: Various clinical presentations of glomerulonephritis were shown to elderly patients. Number of complications after renal biopsies were relatively small, and good responsiveness to treatment could be expected in the elderly patients. Therefore it is reasonable to perform a renal biopsy if indicated.