title: Prevalence of immunecomplex-associated glomerulonephritis in hypertensive subjects.
abstract: Glomerulonephritis demonstrable by immunohistochemistry may be present at post mortem in many patients without overt renal diseases. Systematic renal biopsies in severely hypertensive patients have shown a high prevalence of clinically undiagnosed glomerulonephritis. We have examined the kidneys of 423 consecutive subjects who came to post mortem and full-filled criteria for the diagnosis of hypertension. Patients were considered to be hypertensive if this had been clinically documented during life or if the heart weight/body weight ratio was > 0.005 in the absence of known other causes of cardiac hypertrophy. Normotensive controls were selected on the basis of clinically documented normal BP or a heart weight/body weight ratio of < 0.001. Kidneys were examined by immunohistology (PAP technique using human IgA, IgG, IgM antibodies). Excluding cases with liver cirrhosis, only two of the 337 patients with hypertension (= 0.6%) and none of the 49 normotensive patients had mesangial IgA deposits (P = 0.77). This finding argues against the frequent occurrence of latent glomerulonephritis in elderly patients with manifest hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Ruperto Carola University, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hauer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Waldherr
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ritz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D007668:Kidney / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence
chemical_list: D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex