Familial polycystic kidney disease in Nigeria: a report of two cases

A case of familial polycystic kidney disease is reported. Although isolated cases of adult polycystic kidney disease have been reported in our environment, no case to our knowledge has been reported with a familial link. Polycystic kidney disease is said to be rare in Africans. Although it commonly terminates in chronic renal failure, it hardly features in the aetiopathogenesis of end stage renal disease requiring some form of renal replacement therapy in African series. This, some workers believe may be due to misdiagnosis and under reporting. This report is to show that it may not be as rare as suspected, and that the familial link shown in the advanced countries is also applicable here. Case 1 was diagnosed in the course of evaluation of her clinical disease. Case 2, an aunt of Case 1, was diagnosed following investigation of a casual complaint of a painless abdominal mass in the wake of her senior brother's death from haemorrhagic stroke.