Childhood Acute Glomerulonephritis in Benin City

Abstract

Summary: A prospective study of consecutive cases of acute glomerulonephritis (AGN) in 63 children was conducted at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), between January 1996 and December 2000. There were 28 (44.4 percent) males and 35 (56.6 percent) females whose ages ranged from 0.2-15.0 years. The mean age of the males (6.6 + 4.3 years) did not vary significantly from that of the females (7.6 – 3.6 years) (t = 0.30; p > 0.50). The peak age incidence for both genders was three years. The lowest annual incidence of nine was seen in 1997 while the highest of 17 occurred in 2000. About 90 percent of the patients came from low socio-economic class families. Presenting features included oedema (93.7 percent), hypertension (82.5 percent), oliguria (47.6 percent) and pulmonary oedema (39.7 percent). Others were headache (11.1 percent) and convulsion (4.8 percent). Haematuria and proteinuria of varying degrees occurred in all the patients, while antecedent infections were noted in 49.2 percent. Complications included congestive cardiac failure (39.7 percent), urinary tract infection (20.6 percent), acute renal failure (12.7 percent), and hypertensive encephalopathy (4.8 percent), while mortality was 3.2 percent. Two cases each, developed nephrotic syndrome and chronic renal failure after about two years of follow up. Despite geographical variations, the pattern of the disease was similar to what obtains in other centres in the country.