Chronic glomerulonephritis and organic solvents. A case-control study.

Fifty patients with histologically confirmed chronic glomerulonephritis (34 males, 16 females, average age 42 years) and 50 control patients, age and sex-matched, with a variety of internal diseases, were selected. Both cases and controls completed an extensive questionnaire and additional information was sampled by means of a personal interview, especially concerning the exposure to organic solvents. In contrast to three other recently published case-control studies, no difference in exposure between cases and controls was found in our study. A relative risk of 1.1 with an upper 95% confidence limit of 2.7 was calculated. It is suggested that one particular solvent, contaminant, or additive present, which is less used in the Amsterdam region than in other areas, may explain the discrepancy with previous studies.