A priori clinical diagnosis of CKD is defined as pre-WES clinical diagnosis per referral by primary nephrologist. CAKUT, congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract; CKD, chronic kidney disease; ESKD, end-stage kidney disease; GN, glomerulonephritis; SRNS, steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome; TIKD, tubulointerstitial kidney disease; WES, whole exome sequencing. a Age at first presentation to medical services with evidence of CKD. b Age at start of renal replacement therapy, i.e., dialysis or kidney transplantation. DM Connaughton et al.: Monogenic causation of chronic kidney disease in Ireland c l i n i c a l i n v e s t i g a t i o n Kidney International (2019) 95, 914-928 DM Connaughton et al.: Monogenic causation of chronic kidney disease in Ireland c l i n i c a l i n v e s t i g a t i o n

SummaryBackground and objectives The term C3 glomerulopathy describes renal disorders characterized by the presence of glomerular deposits composed of C3 in the absence of significant amounts of Ig. On the basis of electron microscopy appearance, subsets of C3 glomerulopathy include dense deposit disease (DDD) and C3 glomerulonephritis (C3GN). The full spectrum of histologic change observed in C3 glomerulopathy has yet to be defined and pathologic predictors of renal outcome within this patient population remain largely unknown. This study thus characterized a large C3 glomerulopathy cohort and identified clinicopathologic predictors of renal outcome.Design, setting, participants, & measurements All patients with kidney biopsies fulfilling criteria for C3 glomerulopathy from two quaternary renal centers within the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1992 and 2012 were retrospectively reviewed. We recorded histologic, demographic, and clinical data and determined predictors of ESRD using the Cox proportional hazards model.Results Eighty patients with C3 glomerulopathy were identified: 21 with DDD and 59 with C3GN. Patients with DDD were younger, more likely to have low serum C3 levels, and more likely to have crescentic GN than patients with C3GN. Patients with C3GN were older and had more severe arteriolar sclerosis, glomerular sclerosis, and interstitial scarring than patients with DDD. Of 70 patients with available follow-up data, 20 (29%) progressed to ESRD after a median of 28 months. Age .16 years, DDD subtype, and crescentic GN were independent predictors of ESRD within the entire cohort. Renal impairment at presentation predicted ESRD only among patients with DDD.Conclusions Although detailed serologic and genetic data are lacking, this study nevertheless identifies important clinicopathologic distinctions between patients with DDD and C3GN. These include independent predictors of renal outcome. If replicated in other cohorts, these predictors could be used to stratify patients, enabling application of emerging mechanism-based therapies to patients at high risk for poor renal outcome.

Histologic grading systems are used to guide diagnosis, therapy, and audit on an international basis. The reproducibility of grading systems is usually tested within small groups of pathologists who have previously worked or trained together. This may underestimate the international variation of scoring systems. We therefore evaluated the reproducibility of an established system, the Banff classification of renal allograft pathology, throughout Europe. We also sought to improve reproducibility by providing individual feedback after each of 14 small groups of cases. Kappa values for all features studied were lower than any previously published, confirming that international variation is greater than interobserver variation as previously assessed. A prolonged attempt to improve reproducibility, using numeric or graphical feedback, failed to produce any detectable improvement. We then asked participants to grade selected photographs, to eliminate variation induced by pathologists viewing different areas of the slide. This produced improved kappa values only for some features. Improvement was influenced by the nature of the grade definitions. Definitions based on "area affected" by a process were not improved. The results indicate the danger of basing decisions on grading systems that may be applied very differently in different institutions.