PYOGENIC INFECTIONS OF SKIN: ETIOLOGIC FACTOR IN ACUTE GLOMERULONEPHRITIS OF CHILDREN

Abstract

ALTHOUGH infections of the skin have been recognized as an etiologic fator in from 0 to 31% of the cases of acute glomerulonephritis for over 60 yr., infections of the upper respiratory tract usually are regarded by the majority of pediatricians, dermatologists, and general practitioners as the principal cause of nephritis in children. However, during the past four years, about half of the children (36 in a total of 73) admitted to Duke Hospital with acute glomerulonephritis had not had an upper-respiratory-tract infection which could be implicated but had had a preceding superficial pyoderma. In 1940 Futcher¹ found that the reported incidence of glomerulonephritis following skin infection varied from 0 to 28%. Several investigators² in the intervening nine years have recorded the incidence of skin infections preceding acute glomerulonephritis to be from 4 to 31%. Ta Sen Suen³ reported a large series of Chinese children who had