To investigate the clinic-pathological features and prognostic risk factors of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) with hypertension (HTN).

Primary IgAN patients diagnosed with biopsy from January 2016 to December 2017 were recruited. Patients were divided into IgAN with normal blood pressure (IgAN-NTN) group and IgAN with hypertension (IgAN-HTN) group based on the pressure value when performing the kidney biopsy. The clinical and pathological data were collected and compared between the two groups. Kaplan-Meier method was conducted for renal results, whereas the Cox regression model was exploited to analyze the prognostic factors in the progression of IgAN-HTN patients.

The total number of enrolled patients was 275 cases, 170 (61.82%) of which had normal pressure and 105 individuals (38.18%) resulted in hypertension. The IgAN-HTN group in terms of male proportion, age, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, serum urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, serum uric acid, 24 h urinary protein, triacylglycerol, complement C4 and so on were higher than those in the IgAN-NTN group (all P<0.05). The incidence of gross hematuria and the level of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) were significantly lower than those in the NTN group (all P<0.001). For the aspect of light microscope pathological manifestations, IgAN-HTN group exhibited more severe histological lesions including glomerular sclerosis, renal tubular atrophy or renal interstitial fibrosis, interstitial vascular injury than IgAN-NTN group (all P<0.05). Immunofluorescence examination results showed that the deposition ratio of C1q in IgAN-HTN group was higher than that in IgAN-NTN group (P=0.015). By employing Kaplan-Meier method, the cumulative renal survival rate in the HTN group was much lower than that in the NTN group (Log-rank test: χ²=6.456, P=0.011). For the patients in IgAN-HTN group, the cumulative renal survival rate in the dyslipidemia group was much lower than that in the ortholiposis group (Log-rank test: χ²=5.093, P=0.024). There was no significant difference in the cumulative renal survival rate between the blood pressure control group and the unqualified group (Log-rank test: χ²=1.036, P=0.309). As a result of univariate and multivariable Cox regression analysis, total cholesterol, eGFR and 24 h urinary protein were risk factors for renal progression of IgAN patients with hypertension.

The clinical manifestations and renal pathological changes in patients with IgAN-HTN are more serious than those in IgAN-NTN patients, which result in worse prognosis. IgAN-HTN patients should be paid more attention to the management of serum lipid level during treatment and follow-up.

Glomerulonephritis, IgA; Hypertension; Dyslipidemias; Clinical; Prognosis