Impact of the new risk stratification in the 2011 Japanese Society of Nephrology clinical guidelines for IgA nephropathy on incidence of early clinical remission with tonsillectomy plus steroid pulse therapy

Background In 2011, the Japanese Society of Nephrology (JSN) published new clinical guidelines for IgA nephropathy (IgAN) with a new risk stratification based on clinical and histological severity. For classification, patients are divided into four groups (low, medium, high, and very high risk). However, differences in responsiveness to each treatment among different groups remain unclear. We evaluate the responsiveness of tonsillectomy plus steroid pulse (TSP) therapy using the new risk stratification.