Search

The prognosis of monoclonal gammopathies with multiple myeloma and renal involvement is poor, and the indication for renal replacement therapy is controversial. Few studies address the value of renal histology for determining prognosis according to initial pathology findings.We studied the course of 118 patients with multiple myeloma according to renal biopsy lesions. The monoclonal component was identified and quantified in serum and urine. Tumor cell mass was classified as stage 1, 2 or 3, according to Durie and Salmon. End-points were death, or survival on dialysis, or serum creatinine level at last examination.Renal biopsy showed myeloma kidney in 48 cases (41%), AL-amyloidosis in 35 (30%), light chain deposit disease in 22 (19%), chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis in 12 (10%) and cryoglobulinaemic kidney with multiple myeloma in 1. Maintenance haemodialysis was required in 46 patients (39%), earlier (P0.0001) in myeloma kidney (mean: 3 months after diagnosis) than in AL-amyloidosis (mean: 15 months) and light chain deposit disease (mean: 18 months). Median survival was 12 months in myeloma kidney, 24 months in AL-amyloidosis and 48 months in light chain deposit disease. Dialysis increased survival in light chain deposit disease, in contrast with myeloma kidney and AL-amyloidosis patients whose survival was shorter when dialysed. The main cause of death during first year of dialysis was cardiac involvement in AL-amyloidosis, and sepsis or cardiac insufficiency in myeloma kidney. There was a trend to increased survival with multidrug chemotherapy which seemed to slow progression to end-stage renal failure. At last follow-up (median: 12 months, range 1-297), 65 (55%) patients had died. By multivariate analysis, independent predictors of survival were: age70, serum creatinineor = 300 micromol/l, and serum calciumor = 2.5 mmol/l.Initial renal biopsy helps predict prognosis in patients with multiple myeloma and renal involvement. Maintenance haemodialysis is a reasonable indication in light chain deposit disease and AL-amyloidosis, especially in patients aged70. Multidrug therapy tends to prolong survival and slow progression to end-stage renal disease.

Renal histology remains the keystone of diagnosis in most parenchymal renal diseases and especially in glomerulopathies [1–3]. Sampling of renal tissue by percutaneous needle biopsy was described by Iversen and Brun in 1951 [4]. This procedure is usually safe, provided contraindications are respected [5–10]. Such contraindications include uncontrolled hypertension and/or bleeding disorders, which can favor severe perirenal hematoma. Even when these contraindications are heeded, systematic computerized tomography (CT) showed that the incidence of perirenal hematoma discovered by CT scan (irrespective of its clinical manifestation) is 57 to 85% [11, 12]. In the absence of contraindications, there are patients in whom the slightest possibility of a complication necessitating lombotomy for hemostasis would be ethically incompatible with renal biopsy. This is the case, for instance, in patients with morbid obesity or with chronic respiratory insufficiency, in whom general anesthesia might represent a considerable hazard. Finally, there are cases where the size or the anatomical location of the kidney makes renal tissue sampling difficult or impossible. Ultrasound or CT scan-guided biopsy [13–15] does not always obviate such pitfalls. Other, more invasive methods have been proposed to sample kidney tissue, for instance by means of a short lombotomy [16–21], but this approach, which in addition necessitates the use of an operating room and several days of hospitalization, is similarly inapplicable in a patient with severe bleeding disorder or morbid obesity. We have described a novel technique of renal biopsy using the transjugular route, inspired from that used for liver biopsy in patients with clotting disorders in whom the percutaneous route would similarly be precluded [22–24]. This new technique was published in abstract form [25], and we reported our preliminary results on 50 cases [26]. The goal of this Technical Note is to analyze our present experience on 200 procedures carried out in 195 patients.

To identify the demographic, clinical, and pathologic features and the prognosis of renal disease in a series of patients with infectious or postinfectious proliferative glomerulonephritis (GN), data were collected from records of 76 adult patients admitted from 1976 to 1993 to 2 neighboring suburban hospital nephrology units, whose catchment population consists of patients living in a suburban borough of Paris with a below-average socioeconomic status. Thirty-four patients (45%) were alcoholics, diabetics, or intravenous illicit-drug users. Sixty-six patients presented with acute nephritic and/or nephrotic syndrome. Acute renal failure was present in 56 (76%) and required dialysis in 14. The diagnostic workup comprised at least 1 renal biopsy in each case. The patient's background, site of infection, clinical course, laboratory variables, and, when available, bacteriologic findings were analyzed in each case to interpret the evolution of the disease. Initial renal biopsy disclosed endocapillary GN in 44 patients, crescentic GN in 26, and membranoproliferative GN in 6. Ten patients had endocarditis. Staphylococci and Gram-negative strains, not streptococci, were the most common bacteria identified. The origin of sepsis was mainly the oropharynx (21), the skin (19) and the lung (14); 19 cases involved multiple sites of infection. Eight patients died (11%), and 20 (26%) recovered renal function, but GN followed a chronic course in 38 (50%), rapidly requiring maintenance dialysis in 6. Poor prognostic factors included age over 50 years, purpura, endocarditis, and glomerular extracapillary proliferation. Twenty-six patients underwent repeat renal biopsy 1 month to 11 years after the initial presentation. The main finding, irrespective of the interval since the first biopsy, was that ongoing or new iatrogenic infection acquired during hospitalization was almost invariably acquired during hospitalization was almost invariably associated with developing glomerular proliferative changes. This study shows that infectious proliferative GN remains common, but that its epidemiology has changed from what was observed until 2 decades ago. The responsible bacteria, when identified, now comprise a majority of staphylococci and Gram-negative strains, in contrast to the streptococci which predominated 3 decades ago. Infectious GN affects with increasing frequency patients with an underlying condition responsible for immunosuppression, especially alcoholism, even in the absence of cirrhosis. Destructive glomerular proliferation persists, especially but not exclusively until infection has been eradicated, and despite rescue treatment with corticosteroids and/or cytostatic drugs. Thus, the prognosis is poor, and infectious GN often ends in renal death. Infection continues in this decade to represent a frequent and probably often overlooked cause of end-stage renal failure.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Diagnostic procedures and long-term prognosis in bilateral renal cortical necrosis. Thirty-eight patients with bilateral renal cortical necrosis (BRCN) were studied with special reference to etiology, diagnostic procedures and ultimate prognosis. BRCN was of obstetrical origin in 26 patients and more frequent during the third trimester of pregnancy (21%) than earlier (1.5%). Renal biopsy, renal arteriography and hemodynamic data were useful procedures in the early differentiation of total from patchy BRCN. In patients with patchy BRCN, the percentage of destroyed glomeruli on the kidney biopsy specimen was lower than in those with total BRCN, renal arteriography showed that the cortical nephrogram was present but non-homogeneous and mean renal blood flow (MRBF) (85Kr method) fell within the range observed in patients with acute tubular nephropathy undergoing full recovery. In patients with total BRCN, cortical tissue was uniformly necrotic, the cortical nephrogram was completely absent, MRBF was always below 50 ml/100 g·min and a first component was never recognizable. Biological evidence of intravascular coagulation was inconstant. Intrarenal vascular thrombi were only found in the renal biopsy specimens of those patients with short survival. Partial recovery occurred in 16 patients and GFR increased over a one year period. Subsequent deterioration of renal function occurred in nine patients requiring chronic hemodialysis and/or renal transplantation. Diagnostic et pronostic lointain des necroses corticales bilaterales des reins. Trente-huit malades atteints de necrose corticale bilaterale des reins (NCR) ont ete specialement etudies du point de vue de l'etiologie, des methodes de diagnostic et du pronostic lointain. La NCR a ete d'origine obstetricale chez 26 malades et a ete plus souvent observee pendant le troisieme trimestre de la grossesse (21%) que plus precocement (1, 5%). La biopsie renale, l'arteriographie renale et les donnees hemodynamiques ont ete utiles pour distinguer les NCR totales et partielles. Chez les malades atteints de NCR partielle, la biopsie renale a montre que le pourcentage de glomerules detruits etait plus bas que dans les NCR totales, l'arteriographie renale a montre que la nephrographie corticale etait presente mais non-homogene et le flux sanguin renal moyen (FSRM) (methode au 85Kr) restait compris dans les limites observees chez les malades atteints de nephropathie tubulaire aigue avec guerison complete. Chez les malades atteints de NCR totale, le tissu renal cortical etait uniformement necrotique, la nephrographie corticale totalement absente, le FSRM etait toujours inferieur a 50 ml/100 g·mn et aucun premier composant n'etait individualisable. Les preuves biologiques d'une coagulation intravasculaire ont ete inconstantes. Des thrombi vasculaires intrarenaux n'ont ete rencontres en biopsie que chez les malades ayant une courte survie. Une recuperation partielle a ete observee chez 16 malades et la FG a continue a s'elever au-dela de la premiere annee. Une aggravation secondaire de la fonction renale est survenue chez neuf malades, necessit ant des hemodialyses periodiques et/ou une transplantation renale.

Uremic and non-uremic complications in acute renal failure: Evaluation of early and frequent dialysis on prognosis.Five hundred patients were treated for acute renal failure between 1966 and 1970; 279 patients (Group I) were treated before and 221 patients (Group II) were treated after the systematic institution of prophylactic hemodialysis.Significant improvement was not observed in patients with severe pre-existing diseases or extensive extrarenal lesions (41 patients); such patients usually died from non-uremic complications before or during dialysis.Hemodialysis was required in 320 patients.Overall mortality was reduced by prophylactic hemodialysis from 42% (Group I) to 29% (Group II), and it was significantly lower in all patient categories: post-surgical (from 54 to 38%), post-trauma (from 55 to 33%).The frequency of uremic symptoms, and mortality related thereto, was substantially lowered.Deaths due to gastrointestinal hemorrhage decreased from 14 to 5% and those due to septicemia fell from 24 to 12%.Adequate nutritional care and better prophylaxis of sepsis contributed to the improvement in mortality. Complications uremiques et non uremiques dans l'insuffisance renale aigue: Influence des dialyses frequentes et repetees sur le pronostic.500 malades atteints d'insuffisance renale aigue ont ete hospitalises entre 1966 et 1970, dont 279 ont ete traites avant (Groupe I) et 221 apres l'institution systematique d'hemodialyses prophylactiques (Groupe II).Le pronostic n'a pas ete modifie chez les malades ayant une affection severe pre-existante ou des lesions extra-renales etendues (41 cas); ces sujets sont decedes de complications non uremiques avant toute dialyse ou malgre celle-ci.Des hemodialyses ont ete necessaires dans 320 cas.La mortalite d'ensemble a ete reduite de 42% (Groupe I) a 29% (Groupe II); la mortalite s'est abaissee significativement dans toutes les categories de malades, y compris les insuffisances renales chirurgicales (54 a 38%) et post-traumatiques (55 a 33%).La frequence et la mortalite dues aux complications uremiques a ete franchement diminuee.Les deces provoques par une hemorragie digestive se sont abaisses de 14 a 5% et ceux en rapport avec une septicemie de 24 a 12%.Un apport nutritionnel suffisant et une meilleure prophylaxie des etats septicemiques ont ete des elements importants dans l'amelioration generale du pronostic.