Abstract
Urinary kallikrein was measured in patients with mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis. No patients had hypertension, nephrotic syndrome or severe renal dysfunction. Quantitative analysis of the histological changes and establishment of indices of glomerular lesions (IGL) and tubular atrophy (T/S) in renal biopsy specimens were carried out. In 24 patients, the kallikrein excretion was found to be positively correlated with the creatinine clearance (p <0.05), negatively correlated with IGL (p <0.01) and positively so with the mean value of T/S (p <0.01). In spot urine tests on 30 patients, the kallikrein activity was positively correlated with the creatinine clearance (p <0.001) and Fishberg's maximum (p <0.02), negatively correlated with IGL (p <0.01) and positively so with the mean value of T/S (p <0.01). Kallikrein excretion in the 24-hour urine showed a significantly positive correlation with that detected in the spot urine tests (r = 0.878, p <0.001). These results indicate that the urinary kallikrein may reflect the renal interstitial injury and that its application may be of clinical use in the diagnosis of renal diseases.
