Frequency and etiology of tubulo-interstitial nephritis in an adult renal biopsies in a tertiary renal care hospital: A single-center study

Abstract

Tubulo-interstitial nephritis (TIN) is an important cause of acute renal failure which may progresses to chronic kidney disease (CKD). TIN is often under diagnosed with there are no specific signs and symptoms. As this entity has paramount importance, so we evaluated the frequency and etiological of TIN both acute TIN (ATIN) and chronic tububulo-interstitial nephritis (CTIN) in renal biopsies. This is a retrospective observational, descriptive study carried out in the Department of Nephrology at The Kidney Centre Post Graduate Training Institute from 2004 to 2016. A total of 1560 adult renal biopsies were done during this period with 125 biopsies of TIN, of which 70 (56%) cases were ATIN and 55 (44%), were CTIN. Thirty-eight (30%) patients had a history of taking proton-pump inhibitors, use of various antibiotics in 21 (16%) cases, and 11 (8%) patients had a history of taking Hakeemi (traditional healer using herbs and sometimes trace amounts of heavy metals) medications. The incidence of TIN is higher than suspected and can be caused by variety of etiological agents. Therefore, clinical awareness will help in the diagnosis and early identification of the disease.