A Clinical Study of Hereditary Interstitial Pyelonephritis

THIS REPORT deals with a kindred in which many members are affected by a form of renal disease which has led to the death in uremia of several male members of the kindred and which is characterized by most of the manifestations of chronic interstitial pyelonephritis of the type reported by Weiss and Parker.1The high incidence of pyelonephritis in a single kindred offered an extraordinary opportunity to study both the clinical manifestations and the genetic background of the disease found in this group. The hereditary occurrence of any form of nephritis is distinctly unusual, and no reports of hereditary pyelonephritis have been found in the literature. Rinkoff and his co-workers,2in 1939, reported the occurrence of chronic glomerulonephritis in three brothers. They reviewed the literature as far back as 1875. The disease in their patients was characterized by hypertension, edema, and hematuria. In other reports many instances