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In terms of epidemiology, kidney biopsy is a key factor for the clinicopathological correlation of glomerular diseases. Accurate diagnosis is essential because of treatment election, and therefore contributes to the reduction of the incidence of end stage kidney disease.
Our objective was to study the epidemiological characteristics of 12 years of native kidney biopsy by indication in our center, as well as complications related to the procedure and predisposing factors.
Data were collected from renal biopsies (RB) performed retrospectively from March 31, 2011 to September 3, 2023.
Inclusion criteria: patients over 15 years. Exclusion criteria: kidney transplant patients.
Demographic, clinical, and outcome data were recorded in the RB cohort.
A descriptive analysis of the studied population was carried out, then an inferential analysis (Fisher test) of RB complications was performed to evaluate the association between the categorical variables and T- test study for continuous variables. The value of p ≤ 0.05 was assumed to be significant.
A descriptive analysis was carried out on the sample composed of 215 patients attending at the Nephrology division of Clinica Privada Vélez Sarsfield, Córdoba, Argentina (see table 1). The most frecuent GN were primary (47%), then secondary GN (35.3%); the remaining unclassified (17.7%). The frequency of different forms of biopsy-proven pathological diagnoses found are sumarized in table 2.
When analyzing complications, most of the patients undergoing renal biopsy did not present complications (89.8%), while the presence of hematoma was the most frequent (7.4%) and, in some cases, the presence of hematuria was also observed(2.8 %).
Only the variable higher albumin mean values and history of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) were significantly associaated with complications (p= 0.006 and p= 0.01 respectively).
Table 1 – Demographic characteristics of general population.
Table 2 - The frequency of different forms of biopsy-proven pathological diagnoses (n = 215). SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus, MGN membranous nephropathy, MPGN membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis syndrome, IgAN: IgA mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, RPGN rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis syndrome, ATIN: acute tubulointerstitial nephritis,MCD minimal change disease, ATN: acute tubular necrosis, AN: amiloyd nephropathy, TMA: thrombotic microangiopathy.
In this 12-year epidemiological study, the follow-up of complications observed were scarce, but significantly associated to higher mean serum albumin level and history of SLE of the population studied. This results could help to further define populations at risk for excessive bleeding.
There is a need for a Biopsy Registry in the region, and therefore this analysis also contributes to the knowledge of this worrisome epidemiological situation.