Chronic glomerulonephritis

For a lay person:

Chronic glomerulonephritis is long-term inflammation of the kidney's tiny filters. It can leak protein and blood into the urine and slowly reduce kidney function, often with high blood pressure and swelling.

For a trained medical person:

A group of glomerular diseases (e.g. IgA nephropathy, membranous nephropathy, FSGS) with proteinuria, haematuria and progressive loss of GFR. Diagnosis usually needs renal biopsy. Management includes blood pressure control, RAAS blockade, SGLT2 inhibitors and disease-specific immunosuppression.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Stasis and heat struggling and binding; Flooding of wind and water; Lung-kidney qi deficiency; Spleen and Kidney Yang Deficiency; Q ideficiency and blood stasis; Yang deficiency and blood stasis; Liver and Kidney Yin Deficiency; Qi and yin deficiency; Damp heat inhibiting the three burners; Blood Stasis. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Some herbs are toxic to the kidneys; people with kidney disease should take herbs only with their nephrologist's knowledge.