Goodpasture Syndrome
Goodpasture syndrome is a pulmonary-renal syndrome, which is a group of acute illnesses involving the kidneys and lungs. Goodpasture syndrome includes all of the following conditions:

__glomerulonephritis-inflammation of the glomeruli, which are tiny clusters of looping blood vessels in the kidneys that help filter wastes and extra water from the blood

__the presence of anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies; the GBM is part of the glomeruli and is composed of collagen and other proteins

__bleeding in the lungs

In Goodpasture syndrome, immune cells produce antibodies against a specific region of collagen. The antibodies attack the collagen in the lungs and kidneys.

Ernest Goodpasture first described the syndrome during the influenza pandemic of 1919 when he reported on a patient who died from bleeding in the lungs and kidney failure. Diagnostic tools to confirm Goodpasture syndrome were not available at that time, so it is not known whether the patient had true Goodpasture syndrome or vasculitis. Vasculitis is an autoimmune condition-a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the body’s own cells and organs-that involves inflammation in the blood vessels and can cause similar lung and kidney problems.

Goodpasture syndrome is sometimes called anti-GBM disease. However, anti-GBM disease is only one cause of pulmonary-renal syndromes, including Goodpasture syndrome.

Goodpasture syndrome is fatal unless quickly diagnosed and treated.