Spectrum of renal biopsy finding in idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children: An 18-month retrospective analysis at a tertiary care pediatric nephrology center in North Karnataka, India

Context: Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (NS) is the most common glomerular nephropathy in pediatrics, with great variation in patient characteristics in different regions of the world. Difficult childhood NS poses a great diagnostic and management challenge for the treating nephrologists. The histopathological features of NS have been extensively studied by various authors from different regions of the world with a wide variation in the histopathological distribution. We aimed to describe the spectrum of histopathological diagnosis in childhood NS from North Karnataka, India, where there is a high incidence of consanguinity. Aims: The aim of this study is to study the spectrum of histopathology in children who underwent a renal biopsy in our tertiary care pediatric nephrology center. Settings and Design: Retrospective observational study at a tertiary care pediatric nephrology center over 1 year from January 2013 to June 2015. Subjects and Methods: The medical records of all children diagnosed as NS were retrospectively reviewed for demographic data, clinical course, and histopathological diagnosis. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistics. Results: Twenty-five children underwent biopsy in the study period. Seventeen (68%) were male as compared to 8 (32%) females. Thirteen (52%) of biopsied patients showed minimal change NS, 6 (24%) had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, and 3 (14%) patients showed IgA nephropathy while 1 patient had mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, IgM nephropathy, and Finnish type NS each. Conclusions: Minimal change nephritic syndrome is the major biopsy finding in our part of the country even in steroid-resistant NS. This finding needs to be confirmed with studies with bigger sample size