[Renal disease associated with heroin abuse].

Thirteen patients developed a renal disease after using heroin alone or in combination with other drugs, for a period of 3 to 12 years. Eleven were IV drug addicts, 2 were sniffers. Six patients had acute tubular necrosis, due to rhabdomyolysis in 5 and to prolonged gentamicin therapy for bacterial endocarditis in 1. Five patients manifested a nephrotic syndrome, and renal biopsy showed various types of glomerulonephritis (GN) without glomerular sclerosis. The two last patients had hypertension with intrarenal vascular lesions and HBsAg was present in their serum. Chronic hemodialysis and/or renal transplantation were required in 2 cases with GN; all other patients recovered normal serum creatinine. There was no specific pathologic picture of heroin abuse in this series.