Renal pathology in adult and paediatric population of Japan: review of the Japan renal biopsy registry database from 2007 to 2017

Background The Japan Renal Biopsy Registry (J-RBR), a nationwide, web-based, registry system, started in 2007.

This study aimed to summarise the epidemiology of biopsy-diagnosed kidney disease in Japan over 10 years.

Methods We analysed the J-RBR database, from 2007 to 2017.

Patients’ clinical data collected at the time of biopsy and histopathological diagnoses were used for epidemiological and clinicopathologic analyses.

Results The predominant renal biopsy diagnoses were immunoglobulin A nephropathy (39.2%), lupus nephritis (6.5%) and minimal change disease (6.0%) in younger adults (19–64 years), and membranous nephropathy (17.4%), antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis or anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis (13.0%), and immunoglobulin A nephropathy (12.5%) in older adults (≥ 65 years).

The percentages of patients diagnosed with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and immunoglobulin A nephropathy decreased, whereas those with immunoglobulin A vasculitis and diabetic nephropathy increased over the decade.

In paediatric patients (< 19 years), immunoglobulin A nephropathy (36.1%), minimal change disease (17.6%), and immunoglobulin A vasculitis (8.6%) were the predominant diagnoses.

The percentage of patients diagnosed with immunoglobulin A vasculitis increased over the decade.

Based on the sex distribution, minimal change disease and membranous nephropathy were predominant in men aged < 20 and > 40 years, respectively, whereas immunoglobulin A vasculitis and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis or anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis were predominant in women in their 20s and 30s and aged < 50 years, respectively.

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy was predominant in men at most ages and in women in their 20s to 40s.

Conclusions This study describes the distribution and changes in kidney biopsy diagnoses over 10 years in Japan and paves the way for future research on kidney diseases in adults and children.

Graphical abstract