Prognostic factors in crescentic glomerulonephritis: a single-center experience

Crescentic glomerulonephritis (CGN) is a fatal disease, rapidly leading to end-stage renal disease. Diagnosis should be accurate and treatment should be started immediately. We investigated the factors associated with the renal prognosis in CGN patients.

Forty-one patients with CGN who were followed up at the Nephrology Clinic of Ankara Numune Education and Research Hospital were divided into 2 arms of the dialysis-dependent group after treatment and the group that was followed up without dialysis. Demographic and clinical features along with biopsy findings during time of diagnosis were evaluated for both groups.

The mean age was 41.3 ± 17.2 years old and 26 were men. Twenty patients developed end-stage renal disease, requiring long-term dialysis. The dialysis-dependent group had higher serum creatinine levels (8.2 ± 3.6 mg/dL versus 2.6 ± 2.5 mg/dL) and percentages of glomeruli with crescent (83.1 ± 19.1% versus 56.4 ± 11.9%), were more likely to have oligoruia-anuria (90.5% versus 9.5%) and be dialysis-dependent at admission (86.4% versus 13.6%), and had longer elapsed time until the beginning of treatment (18.9 ± 10.4 days versus 10.6 ± 3.0 days) after treatment. At admission, their serum creatinine was greater than 4.2 mg/dL and the rate of crescentic glomeruli was greater than 63%.

In patients with CGN, renal prognosis is poor and the time of admission to the hospital, degree of renal insufficiency, presence of oligo-anuria, dialysis requirement, and the percentage of crescentic glomeruli on biopsy are closely related to progression to end-stage renal disease.