[Incidence of glomerular diseases in kidney biopsy materials using WHO classification]

A total of 1,308 renal biopsies performed during the years 1978 to 1983 in Moscow (M, 852 cases) and Rostock (R, 456 cases) showed that 685 (80.4%) and 346 (75.9%), in the two cities respectively, had glomerular disorders when classified according to WHO nosology (Churg and Sobin 1982). Among the 1,031 glomerulopathies from the two cities there were 121 with minor glomerular abnormalities (M: 49 = 7.1%; R: 72 = 20.8%), 145 with focal segmental glomerulopathies (M: 76 = 11.1%; R: 69 = 20.0%), and 765 with diffuse glomerulopathies (M: 560 = 81.6%; R: 205 = 59.3%). The 765 diffuse glomerulopathies from the two series were distributed according to the WHO classification into 77 membranous (M: 63 = 9.25%; R: 14 = 4.1%), 519 mesangioproliferative (M: 380 = 55.5%; R: 139 = 40.2%), 11 endocapillary proliferative (M: 5, R: 6), 99 mesangiocapillary (M: 65 = 9.5%; R: 34 = 10.4%), 2 dense deposit (in R), 4 extracapillary (M: 1, R: 3) and 53 sclerosing glomerulonephritides (M: 46 = 6.7%; R: 7 = 2.0%). Utilization of the WHO classification of glomerular diseases proved to be a useful compromise, allowing two different schools of nephropathology to agree on classification of renal biopsy material. The group of minimal change abnormalities and the focal segmental lesions should be subclassified further according to the clinical and morphologic findings.