Glomerulonephritis
Immune-mediated inflammation of the glomerulus that damages the filtration barrier in a pattern-specific way, producing either a nephritic picture of blood and inflammation or a nephrotic picture of protein leak, depending on where and how the immune injury occurs.
First principles
Glomerulonephritis is immune injury to the filtration barrier, not infection of it
Glomerulonephritis describes a group of conditions in which the glomerulus is damaged by an immune process: deposition of circulating immune complexes, in-situ immune complex formation, direct antibody attack on glomerular structures, or ANCA-associated vasculitic injury to the vessel wall, rather than direct infection. The immune trigger can be a preceding infection (as in post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis), a systemic autoimmune disease, or a primary renal-limited process (as in IgA nephropathy), but in every case the final common pathway is inflammation within the glomerular tuft that disrupts its normal filtering function.
Educational content pending clinical review. Not medical advice.