What is glomerulonephritis?

Also known as: GN, acute glomerulonephritis, chronic glomerulonephritis, nephritis, nephrotic syndrome.

One of the kidneys’ main function is to remove waste products of cell metabolism and excess fluid from the body, which are excreted in the urine.

Each kidney has about 1 million functional filtering units called nephrons. The glomeruli are the tufts of capillaries of the nephron which act as the filters of the blood. Glomerulonephritis is an acute or chronic inflammatory disease of the glomeruli which prevents them from functioning properly.


Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM

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