AbstractThe collection of data about renal biopsies is an important starting point for clinical and epidemiological studies about kidney disease. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the frequency of the different kidney diseases, their clinical presentation and the demographic features of the population based on renal biopsies performed at our center during the years 2000-2008. Clinical presentations were defined as nephrotic syndrome (NS), urinary abnormalities, macroscopic hematuria, acute renal failure (ARF) and chronic renal failure (CRF). Kidney diseases were divided into five groups: 1) primary glomerulonephritis; 2) secondary glomerulonephritis; 3) tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN); 4) vascular-disease-associated kidney disease; 5) miscellaneous. Primary glomerulonephritis was the most common (58.64%), followed by secondary glomerulonephritis (27.03%); TIN and vascular diseases were diagnosed in 1.46% and 7.78% of cases, respectively. The most common indications to perform renal biopsies were urinary abnormalities in 45.01% of cases, followed by CRF (21.51%) and NS (21.37%); macroscopic hematuria (6.41%) and ARF (5.70%) were less common. The most common kidney disease in men was IgA nephropathy (27.91%), while lupus nephritis was the most common in women (18.88%). In patients older than 65 years of age membranous glomerulonephritis (34.67%) was the most common kidney disease. The availability of these data is useful to assess the distribution and clinical presentation of kidney diseases among patients hospitalized at the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome
