In memoriam: Claus Brun, MD, Dr Med, 1914-2014.

Abstract

Bo Feldt-Rasmussen1, Lisbet Brandi1 and Klaus Olgaard1 1Department of Nephrology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Correspondence: Klaus Olgaard, Department of Nephrology, University of Copenhagen, P 2132, Rigshospitalet, 9 Blegdamsvej DK 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark. E-mail: olgaard@rh.dk With the death of Claus Brun, a few months after his 100th birthday, Danish, European, and international nephrology has lost one of its great founding personalities. Claus Brun was a nephrological pioneer, who in the late 1940s introduced the technique of percutaneous kidney biopsy. He created the basis for our understanding of renal histopathology and its correlation with functional and clinical data. He eagerly participated in the international exchange of ideas and was the president of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) from 1963 to 1966. Claus Brun was born in 1914 in Copenhagen and graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1940. He became a specialist in clinical biochemistry in 1948 and in nephrology in 1969. Claus Brun’s devotion to nephrology was based on a lifelong scientific and clinical interest in patients with acute and chronic kidney diseases. His studies were based on his work at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry in Copenhagen, and on experiences during his sabbatical from 1952 to 1953 in the United States at the Department of Physiology, New York University, where he worked in the lab of Professor Homer W. Smith. In 1951 Claus Brun, together with Professor Poul Iversen, described the method of percutaneous kidney biopsy in their classical paper “Aspiration biopsy of the kidney” in the American Journal of Medicine. They obtained adequate biopsy tissue in two controls and five patients with various renal diseases, which included acute kidney injury, interstitial nephritis, diabetic nephropathy, nephrocalcinosis, and amyloidosis. Later they reported successful renal biopsies in 42 of 66 patients with minimal bleeding complications. The percutaneous kidney biopsy has since become the major tool for correct renal diagnoses and, as such, provides the basis for optimal treatment for a very large number of patients worldwide. In 1956, Jean Hamburger at Hopital Necker invited Claus Brun to come to Paris and demonstrate the kidney biopsy technique and the histological results, leading to the establishment of an international network of scientists interested in kidney function and disease. In 1960 they organized the First International Congress of Nephrology, with 400 participants. Jean Hamburger became the first president and Claus Brun the second president of the ISN. He was president of the Danish Society of Nephrology in 1969 and was awarded the prestigious Novo Nordisk Award in 1964, and later he received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. In 1956 Claus Brun was appointed as chief physician at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the Municipal Hospital in Copenhagen, where he worked until his retirement in 1984. There he created one of the first laboratories for kidney histopathology. Claus Brun was known all over the world for his high-quality work. His histological classification of kidney diseases served for years as the gold standard, published as a histological atlas of glomerulonephritis together with professor Steen Olsen. Throughout his long and productive career Claus Brun published a large number of scientific papers, many in the best scientific medical journals. Claus Brun also had a number of interests besides his scientific fascination with kidney biopsies. Thus, in 1968 he and his wife Xenia were invited to visit Bhutan. They became involved in treatment of patients and made an assessment of the overall health situation in that country. Claus Brun went back in 1979 and managed to initiate collaboration between the Bhutanese and the Danish health authorities. In his spare time Claus Brun was an eager ice skater and was always the first on the ice of the small lake where he lived. With the passing of Claus Brun the international medical and nephrology community has lost a brilliant and engaged clinical and experimental nephrologist. Our thoughts and sympathy go to Xenia, his wife, who through all the years has been a deeply involved and essential partner in the life of Claus Brun.