Glomerular changes in dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Percutaneous needle biopsies were performed on the kidneys of 20 patients who had dengue hemorrhagic fever with some clinical manifestation of renal impairment. In ten cases IgG or IgM, or both, and C3 could be localized in the glomeruli, using the fluorescent antibody technique. In those cases in which immune complex was found, the biopsy had been done in the second week after the onset of fever. Electron microscopy showed focal thickening of the glomerular basement membrane, with hypertrophy of mesangial cells at the sites where the immune complex was shown. Dense, spherical particles, 40 to 50 nm in diameter, were found in 12 cases. Those particles were carried into the glomeruli by monocyte-like cells.