Glomerular disease in adults in the Savannah region of Nigeria—clinical and pathological features

Abstract

In a consecutive series of 134 adult patients with glomerular disease, 82–7% showed proliferative glomerulonephritis on renal biopsy; 45% of the cases were asymptomatic. Nephrotic syndrome in adults in northern Nigeria should respond to immunosuppressive therapy only rarely.

There was no evidence to implicate Plasmodium malariae as the cause of glomerular disease in adults in the savannah belt in Nigeria. The roles of hepatitis B virus and Yersinia enterocolitica were discussed and require further serological investigations. O-serotype 8 yersiniosis is reported outside the USA for the first time and is possibly nephritogenic. Hepatosplenomegalic schistosomiasis is also reported for the first time in Africa south of the Sahara.

The role of the eradication of infections due to the Streptococcus, hepatitis B virus, P. malariae, schistosomes and Y. enterocolitica in the reduction of glomerular disease is discussed.