18. Immune-mediated renal disease.

Immune-mediated renal diseases can be classified by the clinical syndromes they produce, by the attendant renal pathology, or by the dominant immune effector mechanism of renal injury. The major clinical syndromes produced by immune-mediated renal injury include the nephrotic syndrome, the nephritic syndrome, rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, and acute renal failure. The notion of clinical syndromes facilitates diagnosis and treatment, but does not accurately define disease pathogenesis. In this summary, we discuss pathologically defined immune-mediated renal diseases under the clinical syndrome with which they are most frequently associated. There is overlap between the clinical syndromes, but the syndromes provide a useful framework. Relevant information regarding the proposed pathogenesis of disease entities is included under specific disease entities.