RACIAL-DIFFERENCES IN THE PREVALENCE AND PRESENTATION OF GLOMERULAR-DISEASE IN ADULTS

In order to ascertain the prevalence of glomerulopathies in our patien t population, all renal biopsies performed on patients older than 14 y ears of age presenting to a single military hospital from 1983 to 1992 were reviewed. Two hundred and eighty-five patients were included in the study Indications for renal biopsy included evaluation for the nep hrotic syndrome, asymptomatic proteinuria, hematuria/proteinuria, isol ated hematuria or systemic disease. Fifty-one percent of the patients were white and 44 percent were black. The male/female ratio was 3.2:1. The most common etiology of the nephrotic syndrome or asymptomatic pr oteinuria was focal glomerular sclerosis, and was found predominantly in black males. IgA nephropathy was the most common cause of combined hematuria and proteinuria, and was not found in any black patients in 126 biopsies. Isolated hematuria was secondary to either IgA nephropat hy or thin basement membrane disease in 70 percent of the biopsies. Th is is the first study to demonstrate such differences in glomerular di sease in an American population on the basis of race and sex in a sing le center.