Clinicopathological Characteristics and Risk Factors for Rapid eGFR Decline in Chinese Patients with Biopsy-Proven Obesity-Related Glomerulopathy

AIM: To investigate the clinicopathologic features and the related risk factors for rapid estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline in Chinese obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) patients. METHODS: A total of 63 ORG patients, who underwent a renal biopsy and received follow-up for at least 12 months, were recruited in our study. These patients were classified as rapid decliners and slow decliners based on the eGFR slope value (−5.0 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year). Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors for rapid eGFR decline. RESULTS: Of the 63 ORG patients, 48 (76.2%) were male, the mean age was 38.7 ± 9.0 years, the median of urinary protein excretion was 1.62 g/24 h, 27.0% of them had nephrotic-range proteinuria, while hypoalbuminemia was observed in 7.9% of them. The incidence of obvious hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension, glucose dysmetabolism and hyperuricemia were 71.4%, 60.3%, 36.5% and 27.0%, respectively. 13 (20.6%) patients became rapid decliners during the median 45 months of follow-up. Their mean BMI was 31.8 ± 3.6 kg/m(2), the median of baseline eGFR and urinary protein excretion were 71.8 (range of 30.5–118.2) mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year and 3.57 g/24 h, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that smoking (OR 9.205, 95% CI 1.704–49.740, P = 0.01), hyperuricemia (OR 5.541, 95% CI 1.079–28.460, P = 0.04) and nephrotic-range proteinuria (OR 6.128, 95% CI 1.311–28.637, P = 0.021) were the independent risk factors for rapid eGFR decline. CONCLUSION: Chinese ORG patients were more likely to have clinical characteristics with hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension and hyperuricemia, and mild to severe degrees of urinary protein excretion at diagnosis, while patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria lacked hypoalbuminemia and hypercholesterolemia. Smoking, hyperuricemia and nephrotic-range proteinuria were independent risk factors for rapid eGFR decline in ORG patients.