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Occurrence of subclinical post‐streptococcal glomerulonephritis in family contacts
Author(s) -
Tasic V,
Polenakovic M
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-1754.2003.00106.x
Subject(s) - subclinical infection , medicine , incidence (geometry) , glomerulonephritis , nephritis , disease , sibling , immunology , urinalysis , gastroenterology , pediatrics , urinary system , kidney , psychology , developmental psychology , physics , optics
Objective: There are few data in the published literature on the occurrence of subclinical post‐streptococcal glomerulonephritis. In order to estimate the incidence of subclinical disease, 75 families of index cases with sporadic clinical post‐streptococcal glomerulonephritis were screened for the presence of subclinical disease. Methods: Three hundred and seventeen family contacts were investigated 1−7 days after the admission of the index cases. The diagnosis of subclinical disease was based on the presence of abnormal urinalysis, transitory hypocomplementaemia and increased antistreptolysin O titre. Results: No cases of clinical/subclinical disease were detected among 147 parents. Abnormal urinalyses were found in 22.3% of sibling contacts. The incidence of nephritis among 170 siblings was 9.4% and the calculated ratio subclinical/clinical disease was 0.11. There were 16 siblings (9.4%) whose abnormal urinalyses could not be explained by appropriate tests; 11 of them had dysmorphic microhaematuria and significantly elevated antistreptolysin O titre. Conclusions: Sibling contacts have increased risk for the development of clinical/subclinical post‐streptococcal glomerulonephritis compared with their parents. Sibling contacts with unexplained urinary abnormalities might have subclinical nephritis in evolution; their complement levels normalized before occurrence of nephritis in index cases.