The compensated and the decompensated form of benign nephrosclerosis

Abstract

Decompensated benign nephrosclerosis, a disease which was briefly described by Theodor Fahr in 1925, defended by him in 1934, and then forgotten, is reported and differentiated from compensated benign nephrosclerosis. Decompensated benign nephrosclerosis can be differentiated from compensated benign nephrosclerosis by the frequent appearance of interstitial cortical fibrosis and glomerular alterations in the sense of hypertensive glomerulopathy. Hypertensive glomerulopathy results in ascending obliteration of the glomeruli, i.e., their transformation into PAS-positive hyaline globules. In compensated benign nephrosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis, if present at all, can usually be identified only in the subcapsular areas. In decompensated benign nephrosclerosis, however, a pyramid-like structure with its base at the corticomedullary border is formed. The severity of preglomerular vascular alterations does not differ in compensated and decompensated benign nephrosclerosis. Clinically, there is no significant difference between the degree of hypertension and the development of the disease. The nephritic symptoms are more pronounced in decompensated benign nephrosclerosis, which predominantly affects middle-aged men (male:female, 5.7:1), than in compensated benign nephrosclerosis. As a result, decompensated benign nephrosclerosis is frequently diagnosed and treated as chronic glomerulonephritis.