Prevalence and Pattern of Glomerulonephritis: An Experience of Two Tertiary Centers in Malaysia

Abstract

The prevalence of glomerulonephritis (GN), especially membranous GN (MGN), changes from time to time. This change may be due to genetic predisposition, environmental factors race, age, and indications for a renal biopsy. This study was conducted to evaluate the distribution and changing patterns of GN by further assessing the prevalence of MGN. A 1000, 123 biopsies were performed from January 2012 to October 2019 in Hospital Serdang and Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and clinical presentations were used to differentiate primary and secondary MGN, from which 611 and 457 primary and secondary subjects were diagnosed with primary and secondary GN, respectively. Primary MGN accounts for 13% of all the primary GN, while lupus nephritis (LN) accounts for 44.2% of all secondary GN followed by diabetes mellitus (25.6%). The proportions of primary and secondary MGN were 64.8% and 35.2%, respectively, with a male-to-female ratio of 1:1.1 in favor of females. The renal biopsy obtained from the registry of two prominent hospitals in Malaysia provided valuable prevalence and demonstrated changes in the prevalence of GN in Malaysia. Notwithstanding, immunoglobulin A nephropathy and LN remain the most common causes of primary and secondary GN in Malaysia.