Goodpasture’s Syndrome, also known as Goodpasture’s Disease, antiglomerular basement antibody disease, or anti-GBM disease is an autoimmune disease affecting the lungs and kidneys. In this rare disease antibodies are formed that attack the collagen in the lungs and kidneys leading to kidney failure and bleeding in the lungs. The laboratory plays an important role in the diagnostic process of Goodpasture’s disease. Patients will experience edema, joint pain, changes of urine color, and electrolyte imbalances in the blood. Goodpasture’s Disease is treatable with steroids, different blood products, immunosuppressants, and has a good prognosis if diagnosed early. Some patients have a genetic predisposition to developing the disease. Other
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This autoimmune disease typically affects Caucasian and Asian males between the ages 20 to 30, with males and females 60 to 70 being the second most commonly affected group (Fernandes, Freitas, Cunha, Alves, & Cotter, 2016). The autoimmune processes of the antiglomerular antibodies are most commonly of the IgG class, although IgA and IgM have also been seen on occasion (Hebert, Parikh, Prosek, Nadasdy, & Rovin, 2013). The immunoglobulins mainly attack the tiny air sacks in the lungs, known as alveoli, and the filtering units of the kidney, known as glomeruli. Both the alveoli and the glomeruli contain collagen, the main substance under attack (Troxell, & Houghton, 2015). While collagen is found in many tissues within the body the composition of collagen is tissue specific, explaining why the antibodies do not attack collagen throughout the body. Antibodies are created specifically to the alpha 5 chain of collagen IV (Cui, Zhao, Jia, Wang, Hu, Wang, . . . Pedchenko, 2016). The epidemiology of Goodpasture’s syndrome is somewhat of a mystery as it is still unknown as to why the body creates antibodies to
This autoimmune disease typically affects Caucasian and Asian males between the ages 20 to 30, with males and females 60 to 70 being the second most commonly affected group (Fernandes, Freitas, Cunha, Alves, & Cotter, 2016). The autoimmune processes of the antiglomerular antibodies are most commonly of the IgG class, although IgA and IgM have also been seen on occasion (Hebert, Parikh, Prosek, Nadasdy, & Rovin, 2013). The immunoglobulins mainly attack the tiny air sacks in the lungs, known as alveoli, and the filtering units of the kidney, known as glomeruli. Both the alveoli and the glomeruli contain collagen, the main substance under attack (Troxell, & Houghton, 2015). While collagen is found in many tissues within the body the composition of collagen is tissue specific, explaining why the antibodies do not attack collagen throughout the body. Antibodies are created specifically to the alpha 5 chain of collagen IV (Cui, Zhao, Jia, Wang, Hu, Wang, . . . Pedchenko, 2016). The epidemiology of Goodpasture’s syndrome is somewhat of a mystery as it is still unknown as to why the body creates antibodies to