Clinical Evaluation of Patients Who Underwent Renal Biopsy at Our Nephrology Department

OBJECTIVE: Renal biopsy is a well-established method that is used to diagnose renal parenchymal diseases. In this study, we aimed to determine the frequencies of glomerulonephritis diagnosed histopathologically with renal biopsies between 2007 and 2012 at our department and to perform a clinicopathological evaluation.

MATERIAL and METHODS: A hundred and five patients who underwent renal biopsy between January 2007 and December 2012 in our nephrology department were analyzed retrospectively in this study. Biopsy indications, pathology results, age and gender data, and laboratory data were obtained from the patients’ files and recorded.

RESULTS: Among the 105 patients, 55,2% were male and 44,8% were female. The mean age of the patients was 39.95±16.7 years. Mixed nephrotic syndrome was the most common indication for renal biopsy (37.1%) followed by pure nephrotic syndrome (31.5%), asymptomatic urinary abnormalities (17.1%) and nephritic syndrome (14.3%). Membranous nephropathy, seen in 105 patients, was the most common (33.8%) renal biopsy result. While the most common histopathological diagnosis was membranous nephropathy (33.8%) in primary glomerulonephritis group patients, it was determined as lupus nephritis (36.4%) in the secondary glomerulonephritis group patients.

CONCLUSION: On pathological evaluation, the most common diagnosis was membranous nephropathy among primary glomerular diseases and lupus nephritis among secondary glomerular diseases. Our study provides important data about the features of glomerular diseases in our region.