Granulomatous interstitial nephritis: Our experience of 14 patients

Granulomatous interstitial nephritis (GIN) is a rare condition. Drugs, infections, immune processes, and foreign body reaction are the main causes. We identified a total of 14 patients with GIN during a period of 13 years in 2798 renal biopsies. There were 8 males and 6 females in the age range of 20-70 (mean 35 ± 12) years. The serum creatinine at presentation was 6.7 ± 3.8 (range: 2.3-14.7) mg/dl. In nine patients tuberculosis was the causative agent. Drugs (n = 2) and Wegener's granulomatosis (n = 1) were other etiologies. Systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) and Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) were seen in one patient each. Patients with tuberculosis were treated with antituberculous therapy and three of them improved. Four out of six patients who required dialysis at presentation remained dialysis dependent, one of whom underwent renal transplantation. Two patients progressed to end stage renal disease after 7 years and 9 years each. The patients with drug induced GIN had improvement in renal function after prednisolone treatment. Patients with SLE, and Wegener's granulomatosis responded to immunosuppression. Patient with IgAN was on conservative management. Finally, six patients were on conservative management for chronic renal failure.