Alcohol misuse and renal damage

Recent clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that the habitual consumption of large amounts of ethanol has deleterious effects on the kidney. A variety of tubular defects have been described in patients with chronic alcoholism. Evidence is emerging that tubular dysfunction has an important pathophysiological role in a wide range of electrolyte and acid-base disturbances commonly observed in these patients, and possibly in alcohol-induced bone disease. These renal abnormalities are often reversible, disappearing with abstinence. However, since 1990 a few cases of a syndrome of acute tubular necrosis due to binge drinking of ethanol in the absence of other evident nephrotoxic mechanisms, or in association with the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, have been reported. A link between glomerulonephritis and alcoholism has become evident. IgA nephropathy has been demonstrated at autopsy in 64% of chronic alcoholics and, more recently, the association between alcoholism and postinfectious glomerulonephritis has been described. Structural and functional abnormalities of the kidney are reported with increasing frequency in the fetal alcohol syndrome seen in children who have been prenatally exposed to ethanol. In addition, over the last few years experimental studies in vitro or in animal models have provided information about the biochemical and molecular basis of alcohol-induced injury to kidney. It is hoped that future experimental and clinical research will provide us with a more comprehensive knowledge of the mechanisms of renal damage in alcohol misuse.