How many people have IgA Nephropathy?
Kidney diseases of all types affect over 13 million Americans, killing about 78,000 each year. In 1989, Medicares End-Stage Renal Diseases Program accepted nearly 42,000 new patients, primarily for dialysis. Of these, 13.1% had glomerulonephritis, which ranks behind only diabetes and hypertension as a contributor to renal failure. Although glomerulonephritis is a major cause of kidney failure and IgAN is by far the most common glomerulonephritis we have no firm idea how many people are affected by IgAN. One reason for this is that definitive diagnosis of IgAN is possible only by biopsy, but biopsies are not conducted routinely for mild urinary abnormalities. Another reason is that there is no separate ICD (International Classification for Diseases) code for IgAN. Hospitals use these codes to classify their diagnoses, and government agencies use such data to track the incidence [number of new cases each year] of various diseases. In 1991, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated
