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Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology

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Tubulointerstitial Nephritis

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Abstract

A kidney disease of unknown cause is affecting up to 20% of men living in agricultural communities recognized to be hotspots, among them Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Sri Lanka. The disease often manifests in the third or fourth decade of life. Kidney biopsy indicates that the major finding is chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis in a majority of patients, although a subset may also present with symptoms of dysuria or fever and have acute interstitial nephritis on histology. In this chapter we review the epidemiology, pathology, and prominent hypotheses regarding potential causes of this mysterious kidney disease. We also provide a brief overview of ongoing population and occupational cohorts conducting promising investigations and/or interventions to prevent the disease.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre on Health, Work and Environment (CISTA), National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León, Nicaragua

    Marvin Gonzalez-Quiroz

  2. Centre for Nephrology, University College London, London, UK

    Marvin Gonzalez-Quiroz

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Edificio C (CISTA), León, Nicaragua

    Marvin Gonzalez-Quiroz

  4. Stanford University School of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Stanford, CA, USA

    Pablo Garcia

  5. Center for Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Shuchi Anand

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  1. Marvin Gonzalez-Quiroz
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  2. Pablo Garcia
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Correspondence to Shuchi Anand .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Mohamed G. Atta

  2. Section of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Mark A. Perazella

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Gonzalez-Quiroz, M., Garcia, P., Anand, S. (2022). Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology. In: Atta, M.G., Perazella, M.A. (eds) Tubulointerstitial Nephritis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93438-5_17

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