Organic germanium compounds have recently been reported to have antihypertensive action and antitumor and immunomodulative effects, and are habitually taken for health.
We experienced a patient who had taken an inorganic germanium compound as a popular cure without the permission of her doctor. The total intake of germanium was probably 30 to 70 gram, and chronic renal failure developed. The patient, a 55-year-old woman, was diagnosed as having non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in November 1979. She had no diabetic retinopathy and creatinine clearance (Ccr) was 103.1ml/minute at that time.
After she began to take the germanium compound on her friend1s advice in September 1985, Ccr decreased from 80.6 ml/minute to 20.9 ml/minute and she was admitted to our hospital in February 1988. Diabetic simple retinopathy, proteinuria and hypertension were not advanced during the period, and she was under relatively good control by an oral hypoglycemic agent. We noticed she had a history of ingestion of germanium compound and carried out a renal biopsy under suspicion of germanium intoxication. Renal biopsy revealed almost normal glomeruli and tubulointerstitial nephritis which were not specific for diabetic nephropathy. The level of germanium in the renal tissue was 279 μg/gram, a very high level.
These facts suggest that chronic renal failure in this case was based not on diabetic nephropathy but on germanium intoxication.