Pattern of renal amyloidosis in Indian patients.

Two hundred and thirty-three patients with renal amyloidosis were studied in an attempt to identify the incidence and pattern of the disease in northern India. The incidence of amyloidosis was 1.01% of 6431 post-mortems and 8.4% of 1980 renal biopsies from patients who presented with clinical evidence of glomerular disease. Two hundred and three patients (87.1%) had secondary amyloidosis, 22 (9.4%) had primary amyloid and 8 patients (3.5%) had amyloidosis associated with multiple myeloma. Tuberculosis of various organs was the commonest predisposing disease accounting for 59.1% of secondary amyloidosis, followed by chronic suppurative lung disease in 24.1%. Rheumatoid arthritis, chronic osteomyelitis and lepromatous leprosy were seen in a small percentage of patients (2 to 8%). Proteinuria of varying degree was present in all the 233 patients and 12.9% of them had a daily protein excretion of more than 10 g. Post-mortem examination of 65 patients with renal amyloidosis showed that 75.3% also had amyloid deposit in the spleen, 63% in the liver, and 50.8% in the adrenals. Clinical evidence of disappearance of proteinuria was observed in 3 patients with secondary amyloidosis; in 2 of them, the regression of amyloidosis was confirmed by serial renal biopsy performed 3 and 5 years after the initial diagnosis.

Fatal proliferative glomerulonephritis in lepromatous leprosy.

A patient of lepromatous leprosy with recurrent erythema nodosum leprosum developing acute renal failure proving fatal within 8 weeks is reported. The renal lesion demonstrated acute proliferative glomerulonephritis. Its pathogenesis in relation to ENL is discussed.

Fatal proliferative glomerulonephritis in lepromatous leprosy

A patient of lepromatous leprosy with recurrent erythema nodosum leprosum developing acute renal failure proving fatal within 8 weeks is reported. The renal lesion demonstrated acute proliferative glomerulonephritis. Its pathogenesis in relation to ENL is discussed.

Acute renal failure due to intravascular hemolysis in the North Indian patients.

Acute renal failure due to intravascular hemolysis is a common clinical problem in North Indian patients. It constituted 21.5 percent of 325 patients dialyzed for acute renal failure over an 11-year period at Chandigarh. Thirty patients had developed acute intravascular hemolysis in association with erythrocyte glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6PD) deficiency, 17 due to copper sulphate intoxication and 8 due to envenomation by snakes. Less frequent causes were insect stings, incompatible blood transfusion, intake of anti-leprosy drug--dapsone in non-G-6PD-deficient patients, and mercuric chloride toxicity in two patients each; naphthalene poisoning in one; and uncertain causes in six patients. Renal histology was available in 55 patients. Acute tubular necrosis was seen in 54 and bilateral diffuse cortical necrosis in one patient. Fifty patients (71.43 percent) survived and 20(28.6 percent) diet. G-6PD erythrocyte deficiency, which is present in 4.5 percent of the North Indian population, was the most frequent cause of acute renal failure in this group.

Acute renal failure in leprosy.

Three patients having lepromatous leprosy developed acute renal failure. Two patients completely recovered and one was left with a moderate degree of renal insufficiency. Renal tissue obtained by percutaneous biopsy revealed acute tubular necrosis in two and diffuse crescentic glomerulonephritis in the third case.