Pattern of renal diseases among adults in Saudi Arabia: a clinicopathologic study

In order to delineate the pattern of renal diseases among the adult population in Saudi Arabia, a retrospective study of 166 kidney biopsies performed between 1989 and 1997 at Asir Central Hospital, Abha, Southern Saudi Arabia was conducted. Primary glomerular disease accounted for 66.8% of all cases. Mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis (MCGN) was found to be the most common histological lesion accounting for 25.9% of all cases and 38.7% of the primary nephritis. This was followed by immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgA) (18.9%), and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (17.1%), minimal change disease (9.9%), membranous glomerulonephritis (9.0%) and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (4.5%). Lupus nephritis was the leading cause of the secondary glomerulonephritis (61.5%). Clinical evidence of schistosomiasis was seen in 4.2% of all the cases and in 11.6% of the mesangiocapillary cases. Schistosomal infection may play a role in the pathogenesis of glomerulonephritis in the Saudi population, and further studies are needed to confirm such an association.