Chronic exposure to hydrocarbons and glomerular diseases in humans
Abstract
Hydrocarbons represent a widely heterogeneous category of chemicals consisting on carbon and hydrogen. They could be considered as the essential molecules from all organic compounds are derived from. Incidental and short term exposures may be harmless; however chronic exposure may be responsible for several toxic effects in man.
Neuquen is the province in our country with the largest prevalence of patients on dialysis (over 800 patients per million people), and the incidence of end-stage renal disease is very high (over 190 patients per million people ). Besides, the prevalence of primary glomerulopathies is also unusually high. As in Neuquen a very important oil and gas activity has developed, we accomplished a review of the literature to assess the eventual association between hydrocarbon exposure and glomerulonephritis.