Happy New Year! Or, at least, that’s what I’m hoping for. I fervently believe the more you know, the better you can handle whatever’s happening in your world. That’s why, today, I’m exploring yet another term pertaining to kidney disease that I hadn’t been aware of. Oh my, how many, many types of kidney disease am I (and possibly you) unaware of?
This one is membranous glomerulonephritis. I sort of-maybe-suspected what it might be, but I wanted to know for sure so I turned to Healthline – who bestowed a couple of awards on this blog a few years ago – at https://www.healthline.com/health/membranous-nephropathy for something more in the way of a definition.
“Your kidneys are made up of a number of different structures that aid in the removal of wastes from your blood and the formation of urine. Glomerulonephritis (GN) is a condition in which changes in the structures of your kidney can cause swelling and inflammation.
Membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) is a specific type of GN. MGN develops when inflammation of your kidney structures causes problems with the functioning of your kidney. MGN is known by other names, including extramembranous glomerulonephritis, membranous nephropathy, and nephritis.”
It’s hard to know where to start in exploring this disease. Let’s take the easy way and start with a definition of nephritis from… ta da, you guessed it – my all-time favorite dictionary, the Merriam Webster at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nephritis.
“acute or chronic inflammation of the kidney caused by infection, degenerative process, or vascular disease”
I’m going back to the beginning of my blog journey to What Is It and How Did I Get It? Early Stage Chronic Kidney Disease for the following definitions.
“Acute: Extremely painful, severe or serious, quick onset, of short duration; the opposite of chronic.
Chronic: Long term; the opposite of acute.”
By the way, you can click on the title of the book if you’re interested in purchasing it from Amazon.
So, basically, nephritis means a kidney problem. But membranous glomerulonephritis is something more specific in that it is a kind of GN or glomerulonephritis. Back to the dictionary for the definition of glomerulonephritis:
“acute or chronic nephritis that involves inflammation of the capillaries of the renal glomeruli, has various causes (such as streptococcal infection, lupus, or vasculitis) or may be of unknown cause, and is marked especially by blood or protein in the urine and by edema, and if untreated may lead to kidney failure”
Ah, so now we know what part of the kidneys are involved. Do you remember what the glomeruli are? Just in case you don’t, here’s how ‘s Lexicon at https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/glomerulus defines this plural noun:
“a cluster of nerve endings, spores, or small blood vessels, in particular a cluster of capillaries around the end of a kidney tubule, where waste products are filtered from the blood.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Let’s keep digging. Membranous glomerulonephritis is a specific GN. I went directly to MedlinePlus, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, which in turn is part of The U.S. National Library of Medicine at https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000472.htm.
“Membranous nephropathy is caused by the thickening of a part of the glomerular basement membrane. The glomerular basement membrane is a part of the kidneys that helps filter waste and extra fluid from the blood. The exact reason for this thickening is not known.
The thickened glomerular membrane does not work normally. As a result, large amounts of protein are lost in the urine.
This condition is one of the most common causes of nephrotic syndrome. This is a group of symptoms that include protein in the urine, low blood protein level, high cholesterol levels, high triglyceride levels, and swelling. Membranous nephropathy may be a primary kidney disease, or it may be associated with other conditions.
The following increase your risk for this condition:
Cancers, especially lung and colon cancer
Exposure to toxins, including gold and mercury
Infections, including hepatitis B, malaria, syphilis, and endocarditis
Medicines, including penicillamine, trimethadione, and skin-lightening creams
Systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Graves disease, and other autoimmune disorders
The disorder occurs at any age, but is more common after age 40.”
Being only a bit more than a year out from cancer, I was getting nervous so I went to the National Kidney Foundation at https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/membranous-nephropathy-mn for a list of symptoms.
“Swelling in body parts like your legs, ankles and around your eyes (called edema)
Weight gain
Fatigue
Foaming of the urine caused by high protein levels in the urine (called proteinuria)
High fat levels in the blood (high cholesterol)
Low levels of protein in the blood”
These symptoms struck me as so common that I wanted to know just how usual membranous glomerulonephritis was. After checking numerous sites, the consensus I found was that this is not a common disease. Thank goodness!
Even though it’s not common, we still might want to know what to do if we were diagnosed with membranous glomerulonephritis, especially since I discovered that this may be considered an autoimmune disease. This is how the Mayo Clinic suggested the disease be treated:
“Treatment of membranous nephropathy [Gail here: That’s a synonym for membranous glomerulonephritis.] focuses on addressing the cause of your disease and relieving your symptoms. There is no certain cure.
However, up to three out of 10 people with membranous nephropathy have their symptoms completely disappear (remission) after five years without any treatment. About 25 to 40 percent have a partial remission.
In cases where membranous nephropathy is caused by a medication or another disease — such as cancer — stopping the medication or controlling the other disease usually improves the condition.”
There is much more detailed treatment information on their website at mayoclinic.in/354QFPU.
That is a bit more reassuring. Thank you to all the readers who use terms I hadn’t heard of before and/or ask questions about topics that are new to me. May this year be kinder to us than the last one.
Until next week,
Keep living your life!
SlowItDownCKD 
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