Cyclophosphamide is a cytostatic drug, widely used in therapy of secondary glomerulonephritis. Because pulse therapy bears less side effects than oral one we aimed to follow the cyclophosphamide effect on the course of patients with primary glomerulonephritis. We observed 20 pts (7 women and 13 men), mean age 33 +/- 10.0 yrs, age range 18-50 yrs with primary glomerulonephritis and proteinuria more than 3.5 g. 12 patients also had erythro-cyturia. In all pts kidney biopsy was performed, but in one woman the biopsy was not diagnostic. Renal biopsy revealed: FSG in 2 pts, membranous glomerulonephritis in 2 pts, in 9 pts mesangial proliferative changes and in 6--mesangiocapillary lesions. In 5 pts renal failure was observed. Cyclophosphamide was administered i.v. in the dose 0.75 g/m2 b.s., no more than 1.0 g per dose, in renal failure 0.5 g/m2. During the first six months patients received cyclophosphamide every month and then every three months. Before cyclophosphamide pulse therapy all patients were pretreated with steroids, 3 pulses of 1.0 g Methylprednisolone and then oral prednisone in the dose 20 mg/m2 body surface.
Results: In 3 patients we obtained remission of proteinuria, in 11 patients decrease of proteinuria but 6 patients didn't answer to the introduced treatment. In whole group of examined patients we obtained the statistically significant decrease of proteinuria from 12.2 +/- 10.5 to 5.3 +/- 5.2 g (p < 0.05) after the treatment. The creatinine clearance did not change in the time of the treatment and any special complications during the treatment were observed. We suggest that cyclophosphamide pulse therapy could be an effective treatment in pts with primary glomerulonephritis. Our results showed that the answer of proposed treatment was independent of the type to the changes found in kidney biopsy.