Evaluation of diagnostic criteria for analgesic nephropathy in patients with end-stage renal failure: results of the ANNE study

It was found that in Belgium, renal imaging techniques, demonstrating a decreased renal mass of both kidneys combined with either bumpy contours or papillary calcifications, were the only methods to reliably diagnose analgesic nephropathy (AN) in patients with end-stage renal failure. However, these criteria were selected in an area with a high prevalence of this disease (15.6% of the dialysis population at December 1990). To evaluate the criteria selected to diagnose AN in populations with lower or unknown prevalences of AN, the Analgesic Nephropathy Network of Europe (ANNE) was formed, consisting of 23 dialysis units from 14 European countries and Brazil. During 1991-1992, 598 new patient…