Pathomorphology of Balkan endemic nephropathy.

ABSTRACT

Within the county of Slavonski Brod, Yugoslavia hyperendemic areas of Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) have been recognized for a long time. As the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine of the Medical Centre in Slavonski Brod is responsible for all diagnostic post-mortem examinations in the county, and at the same time is engaged in surgical pathological diagnosis, a considerable amount of material relating to BEN and concomitant urinary-tract tumours has been collected during a 16-year period. This material has been classified and used for pathological, anatomical and histological investigations. In this paper the most relevant findings are described and briefly discussed, without the intention to speculate on possible aetiology of BEN. As the origin of BEN and of the high frequency of urinary tumours among the people from the endemic areas are still unexplained, and uniform criteria for the pathomorphological diagnosis of BEN are badly needed, the proposal to set up an archive encompassing cases from all the centres investigating BEN is supported.