What Are the Diseases Related to the Kidneys?

There are numerous renal diseases, including infectious diseases such as acute pyelonephritis and chronic pyelonephritis, as well as non-infectious diseases like acute glomerulonephritis, chronic glomerulonephritis, and acute interstitial nephritis. The classification of renal diseases is diverse and can be broadly categorized into infectious and non-infectious categories.

Infectious renal diseases primarily include acute pyelonephritis and chronic pyelonephritis. Non-infectious diseases, on the other hand, can be mediated by immune inflammatory mediators and further categorized into glomerular diseases and tubular diseases. These include acute glomerulonephritis, chronic glomerulonephritis, acute interstitial nephritis, chronic interstitial nephritis, renal failure, nephrotic syndrome, diabetic nephropathy, hypertensive renal injury, renal amyloidosis, and myeloma-related renal injury. While most of these diseases can be diagnosed through renal biopsy, renal atrophy is a contraindication for biopsy, and it is necessary to explore the patient's history to identify the primary disease and provide targeted treatment.

There are several causes of renal diseases:

1. Interstitial inflammatory cell infiltration is a significant manifestation of tubular interstitial damage and a controllable progression factor in renal diseases. Effective treatment can lead to the resolution of inflammatory cells and improvement in renal function. Pure early and mild IgA nephropathy rarely exhibits interstitial inflammatory cell infiltration, which can be secondary to glomerular damage or caused by drugs or other factors.

2. Renal ischemia, similar to IgA nephropathy and other chronic kidney diseases, can be caused by any factor that reduces effective circulating blood volume, such as dehydration, surgery, and various stressors. This can exacerbate renal damage in already diseased kidneys. Although most of these factors are reversible, prolonged and severe ischemia can lead to irreversible damage.

3. Cell proliferation, particularly glomerular mesangial cell proliferation and parietal epithelial cell proliferation (formation of cellular crescents), is common in IgA nephropathy and can lead to varying degrees of hematuria. When the number and severity of crescents are significant, they are often associated with renal dysfunction. These changes can accelerate the progression of renal diseases but can be reversed with treatment, making them controllable progression factors.

4. Renal toxicity is most commonly caused by drugs, including their direct toxic effects and allergic reactions. While some drugs may have minimal adverse effects on normal kidneys, they can cause severe and even irreversible damage in patients with renal diseases.