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Currently filtering by tag: Proteinuria

Membranous Lupus Nephritis

Article
The patient is a 19-year-old female who presents with hematuria, nephrotic range proteinuria, and a creatinine of 1.2 mg/dL. She has a recent diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus. Figure 1 shows a normal glomerulus without "spikes" and "holes" of the glomerular basement membranes. Figure 2 shows no significant interstitial fibrosis. Figures 3, 4, 5, & 6 shows IgG, kappa, lambda, and C1q respectively. Image 7 and 8 shows subepithelial deposits. This is a case of membranous lupus nephritis (ISN/RPS Class V). By definition, no proliferative changes (crescents, fibrinoid necrosis, endocapillary hypercellularity) are seen within the glomeruli in a pure class...
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Art of Medicine: Collapsing Glomerulopathy

Article
The above painting shows a glomerulus with capillary tuft collapse, visceral epithelial cell hyperplasia, and numerous protein resorption droplets within Bowman’s space; findings that can be seen in collapsing glomerulopathy.  A PAS stain from a case of collapsing glomerulopathy is also shown in the photomicrograph below.  Initially, collapsing glomerulopathy was considered a severe form of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and placed into the Columbia classification. According to the Columbia classification, collapse of at least one capillary loop with obliteration of the lumen and proliferation and hypertrophy of overlying podocytes is sufficient for a diagnosis of the collapsing glomerulopathy.  Tubulointerstitial damage is...
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Art of Medicine: Diabetic Nephropathy

Article
The above painting shows glomeruli with nodular mesangial expansion and arterial hyalinosis, changes frequently seen in diabetic nephropathy. Diabetic nephropathy is graded by the classification system established by the Renal Pathology Society to separate lesions into varying degrees of severity. In class I diabetic glomerulopathy, there are no changes identified by light microscopy, but thickening of the glomerular basement membranes are seen on electron microscopy (see photomicrograph below). Thickened glomerular basement membranes are greater than 471 nm in women or 520 nm in men (in our lab), which represents greater than 2 standard deviations above the normal population. Glomerular basement...
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Twitter Poll (May 22, 2019)

Article
ANSWER: C By the Oxford Classification of IgA nephropathy, the findings present are classified as "M1 E1 S1 T1 C0" (where M=Mesangial hypercellularity; E=Endocapillary proliferation; S=Segmental sclerosis; T=Tubular atrophy & interstitial fibrosis; C=Cellular/fibrocellular crescents). REFERENCE: Trimarchi H, et al. Oxford Classification of IgA Nephropathy 2016: an update from the IgA Nephropathy Classification Working Group. Kidney Int 2017; 91(5):1014-21.    
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Art of Medicine: Minimal Change Disease

Article
The above painting shows podocytes with foot processes extending along the glomerular basement membrane of neighboring capillary loops.  Effacement of podocyte foot processes occurs in primary podocytopathies, including minimal change disease (see electron photomicrograph below). Minimal change disease is the most common etiology of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children and is the third most common cause in adults, after focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and membranous glomerulopathy.  A majority of cases are “primary”, require no additional workup, and are due to a circulating permeability factor.   Several possible secondary causes have also been identified.  Although these are rare, these should be considered in...
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Disease Week: C3 Glomerulonephritis

Article
C3 glomerulonephritis is a recently described entity which is due to dysregulation in the alternative complement pathway. Patients typically present with hematuria and/or proteinuria in the face of persistently low serum levels of C3. The annual incidence of biopsy-proven disease is 1 to 2 per million with both sexes affected equally. The median age of diagnosis is 21 years of age, but there is a second spike after the age of 50 due to paraprotein-associated disease. The most common glomerular disease pattern is a membranoproliferative pattern. The hallmark of the disease is dominant C3 staining on immunofluorescence which is defined...
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Membranous Nephropathy After Transplantation

Article
The biopsy shows a recurrent membranous nephropathy within a transplant. Figure 1 shows "spikes" and "holes." Figure 2 shows mild interstitial fibrosis. Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 shows IgG, kappa, lambda, and PLA2r, respectively. Figure 7 shows subepithelial and intramembranous deposits. Membranous nephropathy can arise in the graft from recurrence of the original disease, a de novo disease, and rarely as a donor-derived disease. Recurrence of the original disease can be seen as early as one week post transplant. Most cases of recurrent membranous nephropathy occur within the first few months following transplantation, whereas de novo membranous nephropathy usually...
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Art of Medicine: Lysozyme Nephropathy

Article
The painting above shows acute tubular injury with numerous intracytoplasmic inclusions within proximal tubular epithelium, which can be seen in lysozyme-associated nephropathy.  Lysozyme-induced nephropathy is a rare cause of acute tubular injury seen in patients with hematologic malignancies, most commonly with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and acute monocytic leukemia (Santoriello et al, 2017).   Malignancy associated overproduction of lysozyme can lead to acute kidney injury and proteinuria.  Lysozyme is freely filtered by the glomerulus and reabsorbed by the proximal tubular epithelium.  While this happens at a low level physiologically, over-reabsorption of lysozyme induces toxic acute tubular injury. Lysozyme-induced nephropathy is one...
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