Hepatitis C virus associated glomerulonephritis

Approximately 170 million persons worldwide are infected with the hepatitis C (HCV) virus. The incidence of glomerulonephritis in HCV-infected patients is unknown due to a lack of large-scale cross sectional surveys however subclinical renal involvement is believed to be highly prevalent among patients with HCV hepatitis. The most common HCVassociated glomerulonephritis is membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) type 1 with or without cryoglobulinaemia. MPGN typically presents several years, and often decades, after initial infection with HCV. Most patients have laboratory evidence of hypocomplementaemia, circulating rheumatoid factors, and cryoglobulinaemia. Other uncommon forms of glomerular disease that have been reported to be associated with HCV infection include membranous nephropathy, IgA nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, fibrillary glomerulonephritis/immunotactoid glomerulopathy, pauciimmune glomerulonephritis, and thrombotic microangiopathy.