Renal Pathology Flashcards
What do casts in the urine indicate?
Presence of casts indicates that hematuria/pyuria is of glomerular or renal tubular origin
What are two conditions that cause hematuria without casts in the urine?
Bladder Cancer and Kidney Stones
What condition causes pyuria without casts in the urine?
Acute cystitis
What are three conditions that cause RBC casts in the urine?
- Glomerulonephritis
- Malignant Hypertension
- Ischemia
What are three conditions that cause WBC casts in the urine?
- Tubulointerstitial inflammation
- Acute pyelonephritis
- Transplant rejection
What causes fatty casts (oval fat bodies) in the urine?
Nephrotic Syndrome
What causes granular (muddy brown) casts in the urine?
Acute Tubular Necrosis (ATN)
What causes waxy casts in the urine?
End-stage renal disease/chronic renal failure
What causes hyaline casts in the urine?
Non-specific finding, can be a normal finding, often seen in concentrated urine samples
What does it mean when a glomerular disorder is focal and what is an example?
Focal:
What does it mean when a glomerular disorder is diffuse and what is an example?
Diffuse: >50% of glomeruli are involved
Ex: Diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis
What characterizes a proliferative glomerular disorder and what is an example?
Hypercellular glomeruli
Ex. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis
What characterizes a membranous glomerular disorder and what is an example?
Thickening of glomerular basement membrane (GBM)
Ex. Membranous nephropathy
What characterizes a primary glomerular disease and what is an example?
A primary disease of the kidney specifically impacting glomeruli
Ex. Minimal change disease
What characterizes a secondary glomerular disease and what is an example?
A systemic disease or disease of another organ system that also impacts the glomeruli
Ex. SLE, diabetic nephropathy
What is the cause/site of damage in Nephritic syndrome and what are the clinical manifestations?
Due to glomerular basement membrane (GBM) disruption leading to:
- Hypertension (due to salt retention)
- Increased BUN and creatinine
- Azotemia (high levels of nitrogen containing compounds)
- Oliguria (production of abnormally small amount of urine)
- Hematuria / RBC casts in urine
- Proteinuria often in the subnephrotic range (
What are five examples of diseases that are considered Nephritic Syndrome?
- Acute post streptococcal glomerulonephritis
- Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis
- IgA nephropathy (Berger Disease)
- Alport Syndrome
- Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis
What is the cause/site of damage in Nephrotic syndrome and what are the clinical manifestations?
Due to podocyte foot process damage disrupting the filtration charge barrier
- Massive proteinuria (>3.5 g/day)
- Hypoalbuminemia
- Hyperlipidemia
- Edema
- Frothy urine & fatty casts
May be primary (direct sclerosis of podocytes) or secondary (podocyte damage from systemic disease like diabetes)
**Associated with hyper coagulable state (eg. thromboembolism) due to antithrombin (AT) III los in urine and increased risk of infection (due to loss of immunoglobulins in urine and soft tissue compromise from edema)
What are two examples of nephritic-nephrotic syndrome?
- Diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis
2. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis
What are the LM, IF and EM findings associated with acute post streptococcal glomerulonephritis?
LM: glomeruli enlarged and hypercellular
IF: “starry sky” granular appearance / “lumpy-bumpy” due to IgG, IgM and C3 deposition along GBM and mesangium
EF: subepithelial immune complex humps
Who gets post streptococcal glomerulonephritis and what type of hypersensitivity reaction is it?
Most frequently seen in children; occurs ~2 weeks after group A streptococcal infection of pharynx or skin and resolves spontaneously
Type III hypersensitivity reaction
What are the clinical features of post streptococcal glomerulonephritis?
- Presents with peripheral and periorbital edema, cola-colored urine, hypertension
- Increased anti-DNase B titers and decreased complement levels
What is the classic LM and IF finding associated with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN)?
LM and IF: crescent moon shape
Crescents consist of fibrin and plasma proteins (eg. C3B) with glomerular parietal cells, monocytes and macrophages
What is the prognosis, clinical presentation and treatment for rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN)?
Poor prognosis; rapidly deteriorating renal function (days to weeks)
Presents with hematuria/hemoptysis
Treatment: emergent plasmapheresis