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Although associations of apparently disparate diseases are worthy of reporting, the possibility of chance associations warrants examination. The report of Moroz et al. (Pediatrics 57:232, February 1976) of an association between α1-antitrypsin (α1AT) deficiency and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is such a situation. Levels of α1AT were measured by radial immunodiffusion in eight patients with MPGN. Seven patients, including two with partial lipodystrophy, are persistently hypocomplementemic. Five have "dense deposit disease," two have subendothelial deposits with mesangial interposition, and one has not had electron microscopy study.