title: Clinical spectrum of diffuse crescentic glomerulonephritis in Chinese patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate retrospectively the incidence, distribution of primary disease and clinicopathologic characteristics of diffuse crescentic glomerulonephritis (DCGN) in Chinese patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and seventy-two consecutive patients diagnosed as having DCGN out of 9828 cases of non-transplanting renal biopsies over sixteen years, were studied. DCGN is categorized into three types according to immunopathologic characteristics. The incidence of this disease, its primary diseases, clinical characteristics and serum antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs) were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The distribution of patients among the three classifications was 8.7% type I, 68.6% type II and 22.7% type III. Clinically, the majority of patients (69.8%) presented rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN), but 30.2% manifested a chronic nephritic syndrome or chronic renal failure. In terms of related conditions, 93% were anemic, 61.6% had hypertension, 50.6% oliguria, 45.3% nephrotic syndrome, 43% uremic syndrome and 39.5% displayed gross hematuria. Those patients who were positive in serum for ANCAs had predominantly type III DCGN. Two cases with anti-GBM-antibody crescentic glomerulonephritis and three with lupus nephritis were also positive for ANCAs in serum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DCGN is not rare in Chinese patients. A majority of patients in our study presented with RPGN, but 30.2% manifested a chronic renal failure. Lupus patients with DCGN that were positive for ANCAs had more severe vasculitic lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Jinling Hospital, School of Medicine, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210002, China. tangdr@public1.ptt.jg.cn
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Qingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Caihong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Xiaodan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Weixin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Huiping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Leishi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged