Table 1.
Clinical signs and symptoms before the TIN diagnosis and the findings of the diagnostic kidney biopsy. The data are presented separately for all patients, TIN, TINU and TINU with chronic uveitis
| Feature | All patients n = 52 |
TIN n = 19 |
TINU n = 33 |
p valuef | TINU with chronic uveitis n = 21 |
p value† |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General symptoms | ||||||
| Fever | 39 (75) | 15 (83) | 24 (73) | 0.50# | 16 (75) | 0.97 |
| Fatigue | 41 (79) | 13 (72) | 28 (85) | 0.30# | 18 (86) | 0.42# |
| Headache | 18 (35) | 6 (33) | 12 (36) | 0.40 | 9 (43) | 0.48# |
| Anorexia | 21 (40) | 11 (61) | 10 (30) | 0.04 | 8 (38) | 0.78 |
| Arthralgia | 11 (21) | 3 (17) | 8 (24) | 0.73 | 5 (24) | 0.75# |
| Weight loss | 24 (46) | 8 (44) | 16 (49) | 0.78 | 11 (52) | 0.58 |
| Cough | 15 (29) | 6 (33) | 9 (27) | 0.75 | 7 (33) | 0.76 |
| Gastrointestinal symptoms | ||||||
| Abdominal pain | 16 (31) | 9 (50) | 7 (21) | 0.06 | 3 (14) | 0.04 |
| Vomiting | 9 (17) | 6 (33) | 3 (9) | 0.03# | 2 (10) | 0.20 |
| Urinary findings and symptoms | ||||||
| Polyuria | 6 12) | 0 (0) | 6 (18) | 0.05# | 5 (24) | 0.02# |
| LMWP* | 50 (100) | 19 (100) | 31(100) | - | 21 (100) | - |
| Glucosuria | 48 (92) | 17 (90) | 31 (97)ϕ | 0.28# | 19 (95)* | 0.83# |
| Pyuria (n = 49) | 15 (29) | 6 (35)* | 9 (28)* | 0.75 | 7 (35)* | 0.75 |
| Ocular symptoms | 3 (6) | 0 (0) | 3 (9) | 0.19# | 2 (10) | 0.36# |
| Dialysis | 3 (6) | 3 (16) | 0 | 0.04 | 0 | 0.14 |
| Biopsy findings | ||||||
| Tubulitis | 1 (0–3) | 2 (0–3) | 1 (0–2) | 1 (0–2) | 0.03 | |
| Interstitial inflammation | 2 (0–3) | 2 (1–3) | 2 (0–3) | 0.58 | 2 (1–3) | 0.75 |
| Interstitial fibrosis gr. 1 | 10 (19) | 3 (16) | 7 (21) | 0.73 | 4 (19) | 0.98 |
| Tubular atrophy gr. 1 | 14 (27) | 6 (32) | 8 (24) | 0.57 | 5 (24) | 0.68 |
TIN, tubulointerstitial nephritis; TINU, tubulointerstitial nephritis with uveitis syndrome; chronic uveitis was defined as uveitis that had lasted more than 3 months despite treatment, with relapse within 3 months after discontinuing treatment. LMWP, low molecular weight proteinuria; treatment delay was defined as the time from onset of symptoms to the beginning of cortisone treatment
Percentage (range), χ2 –test for categorical variables was used, but if one cell or more had expected count less than 5 (#), we used Fisher’s exact test and exact Sig. (2-sided)
*Data missing in 1 patient
ϕData missing in 2 patients
f p values are for differences between TIN and all TINU patients
†p values are for differences between patients with chronic uveitis and all other patients (TIN and TINU without chronic uveitis)