The correlation between the clinical, laboratory and histopathological features of childhood membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and response to treatment.

In this study, the clinical, laboratory and histopathological features of 50 children with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis are reviewed. Age distribution varied from 5 to 15 years. The clinical presentation in the patients was nephrotic syndrome (24%), acute nephritic syndrome (20%) and nephritic/nephrotic syndrome (56%). Hypertension, macroscopic hematuria and hypocomplementemia were present in 40 percent, 58 percent and 34 percent of the patients, respectively. Light microscopic findings were as follows: glomerular lobulation (36%), mesangial sclerosis (20%), tubulointerstitial findings (36%), and crescents (26%). C3 (93%) was the most common immunofluorescence and IgM (86%), the most frequently encountered immunoglobulin. Response to treatment could not be anticipated by the initial clinical and laboratory features. Patients who did not have tubulointerstitial changes tended to have a greater response to therapy.