Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Nephrol. Mar 25, 2024; 13(1): 88972
Published online Mar 25, 2024. doi: 10.5527/wjn.v13.i1.88972
Exploring kidney biopsy findings in congenital heart diseases: Insights beyond cyanotic nephropathy
Salvador Lopez-Gil, Edgar Garcia-Cruz, Bernardo Moguel-González, Francisco E Rodríguez Castellanos, Brian Ricardo Garibay-Vega, Francisco Pérez-Allende, Victor Hugo Gomez-Johnson, Sebastián Toledo-Ramírez, Iván Zepeda-Quiroz, Jose Daniel Juarez-Villa
Jose Daniel Juarez-Villa, Iván Zepeda-Quiroz, Sebastián Toledo-Ramírez, Victor Hugo Gomez-Johnson, Francisco Pérez-Allende, Brian Ricardo Garibay-Vega, Francisco E Rodríguez Castellanos, Bernardo Moguel-González, Salvador Lopez-Gil, Department of Nephrology, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chavez, Mexico City 14080, Mexico
Edgar Garcia-Cruz, Congenital Heart Disease, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chavez, Mexico City 14080, Mexico
Author contributions: Juarez-Villa JD, Zepeda-Quiroz I, Toledo-Ramírez S, Gomez-Johnson VH, Pérez-Allende F, Garibay-Vega BR, Rodríguez Castellanos FE, Moguel-González B, Garcia-Cruz E, and Lopez-Gil S contributed to design of the study, data analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The need for study approval was waived by the local Ethics Committee of The National Institute of Cardiology.
Informed consent statement: The need for informed consent was waived by the local Ethics Committee of The National Institute of Cardiology.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflict-of-interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Salvador Lopez-Gil, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Nephrology, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chavez, 1 Juan Badiano, Mexico City 14080, Mexico. salvadorlgil@gmail.com
Received: October 18, 2023
Peer-review started: October 18, 2023
First decision: December 7, 2023
Revised: December 20, 2023
Accepted: January 15, 2024
Article in press: January 15, 2024
Published online: March 25, 2024
Processing time: 155 Days and 12.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The association between congenital heart disease and chronic kidney disease is well known. Various mechanisms of kidney damage associated with congenital heart disease have been established. The etiology of kidneydisease has commonly been considered to be secondary to focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), however, this has only been demonstrated in case reports and not in observational or clinical trials.

AIM

To identify baseline and clinical characteristics, as well as the findings in kidney biopsies of patients with congenital heart disease in our hospital.

METHODS

This is a retrospective observational study conducted at the Nephrology Department of the National Institute of Cardiology “Ignacio Chávez”. All patients over 16 years old who underwent percutaneous kidney biopsy from January 2000 to January 2023 with congenital heart disease were included in the study.

RESULTS

Ten patients with congenital heart disease and kidney biopsy were found. The average age was 29.00 years ± 15.87 years with pre-biopsy proteinuria of 6193 mg/24 h ± 6165 mg/24 h. The most common congenital heart disease was Fallot’s tetralogy with 2 cases (20%) and ventricular septal defect with 2 (20%) cases. Among the 10 cases, one case of IgA nephropathy and one case of membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis associated with immune complexes were found, receiving specific treatment after histopathological diagnosis, delaying the initiation of kidney replacement therapy. Among remaining 8 cases (80%), one case of FSGS with perihilar variety was found, while the other 7 cases were non-specific FSGS.

CONCLUSION

Determining the cause of chronic kidney disease can help in delaying the need for kidney replacement therapy. In 2 out of 10 patients in our study, interventions were performed, and initiation of kidney replacement therapy was delayed. Prospective studies are needed to determine the usefulness of kidney biopsy in patients with congenital heart disease.

Keywords: Renal biopsy; Congenital heart disease; Chronic kidney disease; Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Core Tip: Patients with congenital heart disease often have impaired kidney function, typically due to the presence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). However, in many cases, this glomerular pathology is identified only once clinically established (nephrotic proteinuria). The aim of this study is to determine the presence of FSGS under baseline conditions (without proteinuria), and therefore, it could be speculated that a preventive treatment could delay the initiation of kidney replacement therapy.