Changing trends of native renal histopathologic diagnosis in a tertiary health centre in Nigeria

Background: Renal biopsy is an essential tool in investigating renal disease. Over the past few years, several authors have described changes in renal histopathologic diagnosis. Several factors may have contributed to this: including improvements in histopathological techniques, patient's demographic data, presence or absence of underlying disease or malignancy. Methodology:We reviewed our database of native renal biopsies done between 1968 and 2022 to study the trend in the histological diagnosis of patients with the nephrotic syndrome. Results: There was a total of 251 biopsy reports for which we had the requisite data which were year of diagnosis and histopathological diagnosis. In the period around 1968, the main histological diagnosis was proliferative glomerulonephritis, followed by membranous glomerulonephritis and miscellaneous. By the period of 1985-2011, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) predominated as histological diagnosis. From 2012-2022, the pattern changed to focal segmental glomerulonephritis. Conclusion: There is a changing trend of histopathological diagnosis made from renal biopsy slides. There is a transition to predominance of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Whether this reported trend is real or apparent is still unclear.