Granulomatous interstitial nephritis in the military hospital of Morocco: Causes and outcomes

Abstract

Granulomatous interstitial nephritis (GIN) is a rare cause of renal failure. Most frequent etiologies are sarcoidosis, drugs, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and infections agents (particularly renal tuberculosis). The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical features, causes, and outcomes of patients with GIN in adult patients in a region of Morocco. All native renal biopsy (January 2008 to December 2017) were reviewed, but only cases of GIN were analyzed. Eleven cases of GIN were identified in this study, constituting 2.7 % of all native renal biopsies performed on this period (n = 407). There were 7 (63.6%) women, and the average age was 44.2 ± 13.9 years. The mean serum creatinine level at the renal biopsy was 39.1 ± 20.7 mg/L. The most common etiology was sarcoidosis (45.4%, n = 5) followed by drug-induced GIN (27.2%, n = 3). A good renal outcome was reported in patients with drug-induced GIN and sarcoidosis. However, no renal recovery was described in patients with other etiologies. One information from our report and the previously studies is that better data collection systems such as biopsy registries are needed to provide data on the epidemiology and treatment of rare kidney diseases.