Comparison of the clinical and laboratory presentations of primary and secondary glomerular diseases

To investigate the clinicopathologic correlation of the glomerular diseases and to compare the presentations of primary and secondary glomerular diseases.

Two hundred and sixty adult patients (men = 56.2%, mean age = 39.9 ± 16.0 years) who had undergone renal biopsy and been diagnosed with glomerular disease were retrospectively investigated. The information about the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients, the indications for biopsy, the laboratory parameters, and the pathological results of the biopsies were obtained from the medical records. Primary and secondary glomerulonephritis (GN) groups were compared in terms of their demographic characteristics, indications for biopsy, and laboratory parameters.

Percent of patients with primary and secondary GN were 63.5% and 36.5%, respectively. The most common indication for biopsy was nephrotic syndrome (53.8%) in all patients. It was found that presentation with impaired renal function was more prevalent in the secondary GN group when compared with the primary GN group (54.7% vs. 35.8%, p < 0.05). Among the inflammation parameters, the levels of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were found to be significantly higher in the secondary GN group when compared with the primary GN group (ESR = 85.2 ± 30.4 mm/h vs. 56.3 ± 30.7 mm/h, p < 0.001; CRP = 42.1 ± 39.6 mg/L vs. 21.7 ± 40.2 mg/L, p < 0.001).

The clinicopathologic correlation of GN was found similar with the larger studies in the literature. This study also indicated that the rate of patients with secondary GN was not low, and the inflammation parameters were higher in the secondary GN groups.