Impact of Annual Urine Health Check-Up System to Obtain Clinical Remission in Patients with IgA Nephropathy

摘要

Purpose: In Japan, the annual urine health check-up system is well developed. Recently we reported a significant impact of tonsillectomy and steroid pulse therapy on clinical remission in our IgA nephropathy (IgAN) patients and indicated that clinical remission might terminate the progressive deterioration in renal function. We surveyed whether early detection of urinary abnormalities by annual urine health check-ups contribute to clinical remission in IgAN patients treated with tonsillectomy and steroid pulse therapy. Methods: We investigated 380 IgAN patients in whom the onset year was identified by annual urine check-ups. Group A consisted of 264 patients in whom treatment intervention was initiated within 3 years after the first appearance of urinary abnormalities, and group B consisted of 116 patients who were diagnosed after more than 3 years duration of urinary abnormalities. We also classified our 380 patients by the degree of glomerular lesions; 233 patients with mild, 83 with moderate, and 64 with severe glomerular lesions. All patients were treated with tonsillectomy and steroid pulse therapy in our renal unit. Results: The clinical remission rate of group A was 87.1%, while that of group B was 54.3%. In the mild glomerular lesion group, group B had a significantly lower remission rate than group A. Even in the severe glomerular lesion group, the remission rate of group A was significantly higher than that of group B. Conclusion: Our results indicate the annual health check-up system to be very useful for achieving clinical remission in IgAN patients, if they are treated with tonsillectomy and steroid pulse therapy.