Rapidly Progressive Glomerulonephritis

Excerpt

Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) is a clinical and pathological syndrome, a term used to describe the following:

1. Rapid loss of renal function over a very short period (days to weeks)

2. Nephritic urine analysis: proteinuria, micro or macroscopic hematuria, dysmorphic red blood cells (RBC), RBC casts

3. Histopathological characteristic of renal biopsy findings: cellular crescent formation in the glomeruli, which is a proliferative cellular response seen outside the glomerular tuft within Bowman capsule and because of its crescentic shape called crescentic glomerulonephritis.

Early diagnosis is very important for diagnosis and management, requiring preventing further renal function loss.

RPGN is broadly classified based on the histopathology and immune complex deposition as follows:

1. Linear antibody deposition.

2. Granular immune complex deposition disorders.

3. Pauci-immune (absence of deposition) disorders.

Some mixed, as well as idiopathic variants, are also reported.