pediatric renal biopsies in india: a single-centre experience of six years

Background: renal biopsy is a well-established diagnostic modality for the assessment of kidney diseases in children. it can provide diagnostic precision and prognostic value and guide in therapeutic options for many renal diseases. objectives: this report describes the indication, histopathological patterns, and epidemiology of renal diseases in children in india. patients and methods: this is a single-center study on renal biopsies performed between january 2008 and december 2013 in 346 children (age ≤ 14 years). results: eleven (3.17%) biopsies were inadequate, and 335 biopsies were considered for analysis. the mean age was 7.91 ± 3.04 years with a predominance of males (68.1%). nephrotic syndrome (46.2%) was the most common indication, followed by urinary abnormality (41.19%), acute nephritic syndrome (10.74%), and chronic renal failure (1.79 %). primary glomerulonephritis (gn) was predominant (81.79%), and secondary gn constituted 16.12% of the biopsies. primary gn included mesangial proliferative gn (mepgn), igm nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, minimal change disease, iga nephropathy, membranoproliferative gn, membranous nephropathy, crescentic gn, and post-infectious gn. secondary gn revealed lupus nephritis, hemolytic uremic syndrome, amyloidosis, and hypertensive nephropathy. tubulointerstitial nephritis was observed in 2.08%. the most common histological pattern of primary gn was mepgn (20%) and in secondary gn it was lupus nephritis (7.76%). conclusions: the present study provides data on the epidemiology of renal diseases in children in india and will be helpful for developing a national registry and devising therapeutic guidelines.