Sporadic reports of nephritis occurring in siblings have appeared in the literature since the latter part of the 19th century.1-8 Recently it has been recognized that some types of nephritis might represent a hereditary disease. Alport1 first associated deafness with familial renal disease, in 1927. At the present time there are only 10 reported families manifesting this syndrome. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the literature and to present two additional kindreds which have been found in the past year.
Report of Cases
Case 1 (P.).—A 7-year-old girl was referred to the North Carolina Baptist Hospital for evaluation of "Bright's disease." The child had had episodesn of "swelling up and passing dark water" since early infancy. These episodes occurred four to five times a year. Because there was an extensive family history of "Bright's disease," the parents were aware of symptoms of renal disease and