Glomerulonephritis - symptoms

The kidney, basically, consists of a tissue called the parenchyma, which in turn contains glomeruli - capillary glomeruli. They serve for the treatment of incoming blood and the formation of urine. In cases where a person has been exposed to infection for a long time, glomerular nephritis or glomerulonephritis develops: the symptoms of the disease are characteristic of autoimmune processes, when the body's defense system does not function properly, causing inflammation in the kidneys.

Glomerulonephritis - Causes

The main and most common cause of this disease is streptococcus. In addition, bacterial, parasitic and viral infections can become factors contributing to impaired immunity.

Among other reasons for the development of glomerulonephritis, it should be noted:

Symptoms of glomerulonephritis depending on the type of disease

Glomerular nephritis can occur in acute, subacute and chronic form. Symptomatic in this case is very different and glomerulonephritis can often be confused with other diseases. Acute and subacute types of the disease are characterized by pronounced signs, whereas the chronic form of glomerular nephritis often causes difficulties in diagnosis and is detected after a long period of progression.

Acute glomerulonephritis - symptoms

Before the appearance of immediate signs of this disease, there are traumatic pains from both sides of the waist, malaise, weakness, a slight increase in temperature. In addition, the amount of urine output per day may slightly decrease.

After this, there is usually a characteristic triad of symptoms in acute glomerulonephritis:

In addition to these signs, glomerular nephritis is sometimes accompanied by a decrease in heart rate, a violation in the work of the heart muscle, bouts of shortness of breath or choking.

At laboratory researches in urine a considerable enough quantity of erythrocytes, and also fibers is found out. This causes a change in its color. At the session of ultrasound, glomerulonephritis exhibits such indications as indistinctness in the contours of the kidneys and a noticeable thickening of their parenchyma.

It is worth noting that in the subacute form, glomerular nephritis is diagnosed most quickly, since all of the listed symptoms are clearly expressed, and the pain syndrome is very intense.

Chronic glomerulonephritis - symptoms

This type of disease is most dangerous, because it usually progresses within 10-15 years. At the same time, changes in the patient's condition are either invisible or do not occur at all and any complaints are absent. Thus, the symptoms of chronic glomerulonephritis are limited only by a violation of the balance of microelements in the urine, and the diagnosis can be performed only during laboratory studies. Therefore, unfortunately, the form of glomerular nephritis under consideration is already undergoing complications (renal failure). Especially dangerous in this respect is chronic latent glomerulonephritis - the symptoms do not appear at all, the inflammatory process is lethargic, the parenchyma thickens over the years.