Renal Involvement in Leprosy

Abstract

Renal involvement in 20 lepromatous leprosy (LL) and 5 non- lepromatous patients was assessed by (a) biochemical analysis of blood and urine, (b) renal functional tests, and (c) histopathological examination of renal biopsies. Ten age-matched healthy normals formed the control group. LL patients had a varying degree of renal involvement as indicated by the presence of pus cells, granular, hyaline and red cell casts, reversal of albumin/globulin ratio and lowered creatinine clearance rates. Renal biopsies showed significant histopathological lesions in 50% of lepromatous as compared to 20% of the non-lepromatous patients. The pathological changes were predominantly of chronic glomerulonephritis followed by chronic pyelonephritis and interstitial nephritis. Surprisingly none of the patients studied showed granulomas, acid-fast bacilli or amyloid in the kidney.