The Types of Renal Disease in the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Abstract

Between January 1982 and December 1986, among the 750 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) who were treated at two adjacent hospitals in New York City, 78 (10.4 percent) needed evaluation for renal disorders. Reversible acute renal failure due to nephrotoxic injury, ischemic injury, or both was present in 23 patients (30 percent) (Group I). The remaining 55 (70 percent) had massive proteinuria, azotemia, or both (AIDS-associated nephropathy; Group II), and irreversible uremia developed in 43. In an additional 18 patients, all of whom had a history of intravenous narcotic drug use, AIDS was diagnosed after the initiation of maintenance hemodialysis for chronic renal failure (Group III).