Kidney
Glomerular, tubulointerstitial and vascular disease, cysts, obstruction and renal tumours.
35 pages
Lesion
- Acute pyelonephritisBacteria climbing from the bladder infect the renal pelvis and interstitium, forming abscesses…
- Acute tubular injury (acute tubular necrosis)Tubular cells injured by poor blood flow or toxins slough off, block tubules and leak filtrate…
- Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney diseaseInherited defects in polycystin proteins make tubules swell into countless cysts that enlarge…
- Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney diseaseA recessive ciliopathy that enlarges both kidneys with collecting duct cysts before birth and…
- Benign kidney tumoursThree benign tumours matter: tiny papillary adenomas, fat-containing angiomyolipomas and brown…
- Chronic pyelonephritis and reflux nephropathyRepeated infection with reflux or obstruction scars the kidney unevenly and deforms the calyces…
- Clear cell renal cell carcinomaThe commonest kidney cancer of adults: loss of the VHL gene makes cells behave as if starved of…
- Congenital kidney anomaliesErrors in kidney development or ascent produce missing, small, misplaced or fused kidneys
- Crescentic (rapidly progressive) glomerulonephritisWhen glomerular capillaries break, crescents fill Bowman space and kidney function can be lost…
- Crystal nephropathies and nephrocalcinosisUric acid, calcium and oxalate can precipitate in tubules and interstitium, blocking them or…
- Diabetic nephropathyHigh glucose slowly thickens basement membranes and fills the mesangium with matrix; diabetes is…
- Focal segmental glomerulosclerosisPodocyte loss leaves scars in parts of some glomeruli
- Hereditary glomerular disease: Alport, thin GBM, FabryFaulty collagen IV makes the glomerular basement membrane split, causing hematuria, deafness and…
- Hypertensive nephrosclerosis: benign vs malignantLong-standing hypertension glazes small renal arteries and slowly shrinks the kidneys; very high…
- IgA nephropathy and IgA vasculitisThe commonest glomerulonephritis in the world: abnormal IgA1 collects in the mesangium and…
- Kidney stonesSupersaturated urine lets salts crystallize into stones that obstruct, bleed and infect; calcium…
- Lupus nephritisImmune complexes in systemic lupus lodge in the glomeruli; where and how much they lodge sets…
- Membranoproliferative GN and C3 glomerulopathyGlomeruli become lobular and their walls split into double contours
- Membranous nephropathy: PLA2R, subepithelial deposits and spikesAntibodies bind an antigen on the podocyte surface and deposit beneath it, thickening the…
- Minimal change diseaseThe commonest cause of nephrotic syndrome in children: the glomeruli look normal, but the…
- Other renal cysts: medullary, dysplastic, acquiredNot every cystic kidney is polycystic: some cysts sit in the medulla, some reflect faulty…
- Papillary, chromophobe and the rarer renal cell carcinomasBeyond clear cell carcinoma, other renal carcinomas have their own genes, looks and prognosis
- Patterns of glomerular injuryGlomeruli react to injury in only a few ways
- Postinfectious glomerulonephritisAfter a throat or skin infection with certain streptococci, immune complexes inflame the…
- Renal artery stenosisA narrowed renal artery makes the kidney release renin, raising blood pressure; the kidney…
- Renal emboli, infarcts and sickle cell nephropathyThe kidney gets a fifth of the cardiac output, so emboli, sickled cells and clots in its veins…
- The kidney in plasma cell disordersAbnormal light chains block tubules, fold into amyloid or coat basement membranes; each pattern…
- Thrombotic microangiopathy: the kidneyEndothelial injury fills glomerular capillaries and arterioles with platelet-fibrin thrombi…
- Tubulointerstitial nephritis: acute drug-induced vs chronic formsInflammation centred on tubules and interstitium, most often a drug reaction; chronic forms come…
- Urinary tract obstruction and hydronephrosisA block anywhere from the calyces to the urethra dilates the system above it and slowly destroys…
Process
Topic
- Clinical syndromes of kidney diseaseKidney diseases show themselves through a handful of syndromes
- Cystic kidney diseases: comparison tableCysts in the kidney range from harmless simple cysts to inherited diseases that end in kidney…
- Glomerular diseases: comparison tableOne table for the main glomerular diseases, with what the biopsy shows at each level
Mechanism
A to Z
Educational content on the mechanisms of disease; not a diagnostic or treatment guide and no substitute for a health professional's advice. No doses are given.
Representative model, for educational purposes only.