Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
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<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>Several renal biopsy registries in Europe have shown geographical and temporal variations in the patterns of renal diseases. However, there is a lack of current data on trends of renal disease in Central Europe.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>After exclusion of transplant and re-biopsies, the renal biopsy registry of the German RWTH Aachen University Hospital included data of 1208 biopsies over a period of 24 years (1990–2013). Trends in the biopsy rate and diagnosis of glomerular diseases were analysed.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>The average annual biopsy incidence was 6.1 biopsies per 100 000 population. The frequency of kidney biopsies increased significantly over the years (P &lt; 0.001). Primary glomerulonephritis (GN) accounted for nearly two-thirds (58.4%) of all native kidney biopsies, and immunoglobulin A-nephropathy (IgAN) was the leading histological diagnosis (34.7%) followed by necrotizing GN (RPGN) at 18.7%. IgAN increased 2-fold over the study periods (+195%, P &lt; 0.001). Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis accounted for 6.1% of all diagnoses, and its frequency rose to 3.9-fold (+388%, P &lt; 0.001). Lupus nephritis showed a doubling in incidence (P = 0.0499), while acute tubular necrosis decreased to 3.5-fold (P = 0.0008). All other disease entities failed to exhibit linear trends over time. In children, the most common pathologies were IgAN (26.1%) and minimal change disease (21.7%), whereas RPGN (19.4%) dominated in the group of patients &gt;60 years.</jats:p>
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<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>
<jats:p>IgAN was the most common primary glomerular disease in our centre and its prevalence increased over 24 years.</jats:p>
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