Prevalence of nephropathies in children and adolescents and alterations in renal biopsies in Minas Gerais, Brazil, from 1996 to 2010.

Renal biopsy is an important method of diagnosis and prognosis in children and adolescents with renal diseases, and there are few studies describing the histopathologic alterations in renal biopsies in these age groups. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of morphologic alterations described in renal biopsies carried out in children and adolescents. Patients aged between 1 month and 18 years were observed from 1996 to 2010 and were separated into 3 age groups: 0 to 6 (group 1, n = 29), 6 to 12 (group 2, n = 31), and 13 to 18 (group 3, n = 77) years.