FOCAL GLOMERULONEPHRITIS IN CHILDREN - HISTOPATHOLOGY AND CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS

Eleven of 25 children with persistent normocomplementemic glomerulonephritis werefound to have a focal glomerulonephritis by renal biopsy. The lesions consisted in the main of a proliferative glomerulitis which was usually segmental and always showed wide variability in the severity of glomerular involvement in the same biopsy. In the patients with the most severe disease, the clinical manifestations were those of an overt nephrotic syndrome with hematuria, azotemia, and hypertension, whereas those with mild disease had a covert nephrotic syndrome with hematuria only. Onset appeared to be sudden and often followed a respiratory infection. A number of factors gave evidence that the nephritis did not represent a sequel of acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis, and none of the patients had symptoms of anaphylactoid purpura, although the renal lesions closely resembled those seen in the nephritis which accompanies the latter disease. The similar manifestations and clinical courses of many of the patients suggest the existence of an entity which could be termed normocomplementemic focal glomerulonephritis. © 1968.