A Five-year Follow-up

In 1965 Bodian et al. reported observations on 46 children with recurrent haematuria investigated by renal biopsy. The cases were classified according to the type of onset of haematuria into one of three groups: (1) no definite illness (36 cases); (2) attack of anaphylactoid purpura (7 cases); and (3) acute glomerulonephritis (3 cases). The biopsy specimens were examined by orthodox histological, immunohistological, and histochemical techniques. Focal segmental glomerulonephritis was the most common lesion in the first and third groups, but the second group usually had more generalized lesions. This report presents 5-year follow-up observations on these children, undertaken in the hope that it would provide some insight into the natural history of recurrent haematuria and focal nephritis. Patients with an obvious cause for the haematuria had been excluded from the original study. Included in this report are patients who had continuing haematuria as well as those who subsequently became asymptomatic. Attention was focused on the 36 patients in Group 1 (no specific illness preceding the first episode of haematuria), Groups 2 and 3 being included for comparative purposes.