Two-year experience with immunosuppressive treatment of chronic glomerular diseases

The authors describe their two-year experience in the treatment of chronic glomerular diseases with cytostatic immunosuppressive agents. Cyclophosphamide, imuran and chloraminophene were used in low doses for an average of 6 months. A total of 25 patients have been treated, including 17 with various anatomic-clinical forms of chronic glomerulonephritis and 7 with secondary glomerular lesions due to systemic diseases: SLE, polyarteritis nodosa, amyloidosis. Remission was observed in 8 patients, improvement in 14, no effect in 3. The best results were observed in the cases of membranous glomerulonephritis, intracapillary proliferative glomerulonephritis and lupus nephritis. In the cases with good response, the nephrotic syndrome, haematuria, renal function, hypertension and immunologic parameters were favourably influenced. The immunosuppressive agents have the value of a causal kind of treatment. They offer new possibilities in the management of more severe and progressive cases of chronic glomerular diseases resistant to classical methods of treatment and to corticosteroids.