Acute interstitial nephritis: correlations between clinical and morphological findings.

The clinical and morphological findings in 30 cases of acute interstitial nephritis were compared in an attempt to find possible correlations. Patchy and/or incompletely diffuse interstitial infiltration was considered a milder form of the disease, the prognosis of which was significantly better than that of diffuse disease (P less than 0.01, Wilcoxon test). The prognosis was significantly poorer when acute renal failure persisted for three weeks or more (P less than 0.01), Wilcoxon test). Serum creatinine values served as a criterion for evaluating the course and prognosis of the disease. The patients were assigned to one of four prognosis groups.