Use of corticosteroids in Norwegian patients with immunoglobulin a nephropathy progressing to end-stage kidney disease: a retrospective cohort study

Table 1 Patient characteristics at the time of diagnostic kidney biopsy

		Treated with corticosteroid therapy?
	Total (n = 143)	Yes (n = 40)	No (n = 103)	p-value
Age (years)	41 (30–53)	32 (23–46)	44 (33–56)	0.0024
Sex (men)	119 (79)	30 (75)	82 (80)	0.71
S-creatinine (µmol/L)	177 (109–257)	152 (103–285)	181 (112–256)	0.76
eGFR (mL/min/1.73 m²)	42 (25–70)	50 (26–70)	40 (24–70)	0.58
Proteinuria (g/24 h)	3.0 (1.8–5.2)	5.1 (2.5–7.2)	2.7 (1.7–4.1)	0.0015
Crescents (present in > 50% of the glomeruli) in diagnostic biopsy	58 (38)	26 (65)	32 (31)	< 0.001
Tubular atrophy or segmental glomerular sclerosis in diagnostic biopsy	55 (36)	15 (38)	40 (39)	1.0
Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg)	141 (130–160)	143 (127–153)	141 (130–160)	0.27
Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg)	90 (80–95)	90 (80–95)	88 (80–98)	0.41
Middle arterial blood pressure (mm Hg)	106 (95–117)	107 (95–113)	105 (97–117)	0.46
Hypertension (yes)	95 (66)	26 (65)	69 (67)	0.61
Grade 1	48 (34)	15 (38)	33 (32)
Grade 2	24 (17)	5 (13)	19 (18)
Grade 3	23 (16)	6 (15)	17 (17)

For quantitative variables, values are expressed as medians (interquartile ranges), and for qualitative variables, values are expressed as n (%). The p-value was based on Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables and the Mann–Whitney U test for continuous variables. The p-value is here only meant to be a descriptive measure, since we have not adjusted for possible confounders
Hypertension = systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥ 140 mm Hg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥ 90 mm Hg. Grade 1: SBP 140–159 mm Hg and/or DBP 90–99 mm Hg. Grade 2: SBP 160–179 mm Hg and/or 100–109 mm Hg. Grade 3: SBP ≥ 180 mm Hg and/or DBP ≥ 110 mm Hg
Conversion factors for units: serum creatinine in mg/dL to mol/L, × 88.4
eGFR estimated glomerular filtration rate

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