Hyperperfusion injury in IgA nephropathy.

The authors have found morphological alterations identical with hyperfiltration glomerular injury in the renal biopsies of 23 out of 100 patients with IgA nephropathy. In 15 of them the lesions were similar to the different stages of segmental glomerular hyalinosis and sclerosis with deposition of IgM and C3. At the time of renal biopsy, the serum creatinine of all except 8 patients was normal (maximally 170 mumol/1), only 13 had hypertension, and all except 2 were proteinuric. During the follow-up period (mean +/- 2Sd = 138 +/- 76 months) all of them became hypertensive. In 10 patients end-stage renal failure developed, and in another 10, serum creatinine also became elevated (range 124 - 504 mumol/1). On the basis of these data the development of focal segmental hyalinosis and sclerosis should be interpreted as a bad prognostic sign in IgA nephropathy.