Methylprednisolone pulse therapy in two clinical types of crescentic glomerulonephritis

To clarify the effectiveness of methylprednisolone pulse therapy on crescentic glomerulonephritis (CresGN), data of 46 patients was retrospectively studied. According to the slope of reciprocals of serum creatinine (s-Cr) the patients were divided into acute and insidious types, and each type was further divided into pulse (P) and conventional(C) therapy groups. In group C, s-Cr improved more frequently in the acute type (8/10) than in the insidious type (1/9, p<0.05), and the renal survival rate was somewhat higher in the former (p=0.09). In the acute type there was no difference in the improvement rate of s-Cr between the two therapy groups, whereas in the insidious type, the improvement rate was higher in group P (9/15) than in group C (1/9, p<0.05) and the renal survival rate was higher in the former (p<0.01). These results suggest that methylprednisolone pulse therapy may be highly effective for the insidious type of CresGN.