Some ultrastructural aspects of endemic nephropathy of the Balkans

Two renal biopsies selected from a large number of specimens taken by renal puncture from patients suffering from endemic nephropathy were studied by electron microscopy. Ultrastructural lesions were seen as electron-dense deposits in the walls of the glomerular capillaries, sometimes associated with glomerular proliferative processes. Such lesions, which are probably the early stages of this obscure renal disease, suggest that an auto-immune mechanism may be involved.