A study of primary glomerular diseases in adults; clinical, histopathological and immunofluorescence correlations

The frequency of primary glomerular diseases is variable from one part of the world to the other. Data published from India has shown wide range of variation in the different regions of the country. This study reports the frequency of primary glomerulonephritis (GN) in adults in the Rayalaseema region of south India. The study is based on prospective evaluation of renal biopsies done during 2 years 4 months period (May 2010-August 2012). A total of 137 cases of primary GN were studied by light microscopy and immunofluorescence (IF). The patients age range between 15-74 years. Most frequent primary GN was membranous nephropathy (MN) constituting 35.8%, followed by minimal change disease (MCD) at 16.7%. This study demonstrates that MN is the most common primary GN encountered in the adults, the second more frequent is MCD. This result is in contrast to previous reports from India where IgA nephropathy (IgAN) and MCD were reported as the most common primary GN in whole population.