title: Recurrence of IgA nephropathy with crescents in kidney transplants.
abstract: Crescentic IgA nephropathy is an uncommon finding in native kidneys (3%-5%) and in renal transplants. This study was performed to determine the frequency of relapsing crescentic IgA nephropathy after kidney transplantation. Over a 15-year period, 42 patients (25 men, 17 women) of age range 17 to 59 years with biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy in their native kidneys were entered into this retrospective study, because they had undergone kidney transplantation and had sequential allograft biopsies during their follow-up. Mean follow-up after transplantation was 8.9 years (range, 1-15 years). In their native kidneys, 5 patients (12%) had more than 20% crescents, and only 2 (5%) had more than 50% of glomeruli involved. As expected, 52.4% of recipients showed recurrent mesangial IgA deposits in their kidney grafts. The 2 patients with diffuse crescentic IgA nephropathy in their native kidneys experienced acute graft dysfunction at 15 and 47 months. Graft biopsy showed recurrent IgA deposits with cellular crescents in 30% and 20% of glomeruli, respectively. Despite corticosteroid pulse therapy, graft failures occurred 2 and 27 months later. No crescentic proliferation was observed during follow-up in any other case. Only 5 other grafts failed because of chronic allograft nephropathy, without any relationship to the relapse of IgA deposits. These data suggested for the first time that only diffuse crescentic IgA nephropathy in the native kidneys was associated with the occurrence of crescents in the kidney transplants, a finding that raises the possibility of a particular subgroup of IgA nephropathies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology-Intensive Care-Transplantation, University Hospital du Bocage, 2 Boulevard de Lattre de Tassigny, 21000 Dijon, France. christiane.mousson@chu-dijon.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mousson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Charon-Barra
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Funes de la Vega
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanter
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Justrabo
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rifle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D005922:Glomerulonephritis, IGA / Q000473:pathology*; D005923:Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies