Ernest Goodpasture originally described the symptoms of haemoptysis and acute renal failure from the autopsy findings of an 18-year-old male who died during the influenza epidemic of 1918, although it is likely that the individual actually died from influenza. The term Goodpasture syndrome was first used to describe anti-GBM disease by Stanton and Tange in the 1950s about patients with the pulmonary and renal features first reported by Goodpasture. It is not known whether Goodpasture's original case or those of Stanton and Tange had anti-GBM antibodies present due to the limited technology available. The presence of antibodies to the GBM was first demonstrated in the 1960s, following the development of immunofluorescence techniques for use
