Abstract
To estimate the participation of hereditary disposition in the affection of diffuse glomerulonephritis, the familial occurrence of the disease was studied in the patients and mass survey. The subjects were 233 admitted patients with diffuse glomerulonephritis in whom the diagnosis was confirmed clinically and by percutaneous renal biopsies, 934 admitted patients with other diseases, and 501 healthy perscrs working in a company.The results obtained were as follows. (1) Occurrence of more than two in a family (within the limits of grand parents, parents, brothers and sisters, and children) was found in 22 (9.8%) out of 223 families and 4 (19.1%) out of 21 families of nephritis groups of the admitted patients and the mass survery, respectively. Whereas in non-nephritis groups the rates were 0.1 and 0.4%, respectively. (2) Higher incidences of from 3 up to 7 in a family were found in 9 of 26 families of nephritis groups, but none in non-nephritis groups. (3) Age distribution of familial cases was not different from that of the usual diffuse glomerul-onephritis. Some correlation of age was found in brothers and sisters under 30 years of age. (4) Sex difference was not observed. In some families the males and in some others the females were preponderantly affected and in the others both sexes were equally affected. (5) Similarity in course and outcome was noticee more markedly between brothers and sisters than between parent and child. (6) Clinical and histological investigations were made on 36 of 63 familial cases of nephritis group of admitted patients. So far as investigated, the aspects of every cases were clinically and his-tologically those of diffuse glomerulonephritis and were different from those of hereditary nephritis or familial hematuria.(7) Five interesting family cases including a case of identical twins were presented. (8) From these observations it was concluded that the familial constitutional factors play a role in the affection and course of this disease.
