Natural history of an acute glomerulonephritis epidemic in children. An 11- to 12-year follow-up

During an epidemic of poststreptococcal acute glomerulonephritis (PSAGN) in Israel during the second half of 1968, 155 children were hospitalized. All of them were initially followed up for 6 mth to 2 yr, during which period no evidence of continuing kidney damage was found. Fifty-five of the group were hospitalized over the next 2 to 10 yr for reasons unrelated to their original illness, at which time they also were found to be free of renal damage. Eighty children were examined 11 to 12 yr after the epidemic, and in them, too, urine examination, blood chemistry and blood pressure were within normal limits. It seems reasonable to conclude that the PSAGN of the 1968 epidemic was a benign disease with no lasting ill effects. Since most of the cases were associated with an M-55 skin Streptococcus and pyoderma, the authors suggest that glomerulonephritis due to pyoderma associated with this strain does not give rise to chronic renal disease.