Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffIgA nephropathy — also called Berger's disease — is a common kidney disease that occurs when an antibody called IgA lodges in your kidneys. This hampers your kidneys' ability to filter waste and excess water from your blood. Over time, IgA nephropathy can lead to blood and protein in your urine, high blood pressure, and swollen hands and feet.
IgA nephropathy usually progresses slowly over many years, and although some people eventually achieve complete remission, others develop end-stage kidney failure. No cure exists for IgA nephropathy, but certain medications can slow its course.
Keeping your blood pressure under control, limiting protein in your diet and reducing your cholesterol levels also may help keep IgA nephropathy in check.
- IgA nephropathy. National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/iganephropathy. Accessed Aug. 31, 2008.
- Strippoli GF, et al. Evidence-based survey of therapeutic options for IgA nephropathy: Assessment and criticism. American Journal of Kidney Disease. 2003;41(6):1129-1139.
- Glomerulonephritis. MayoClinic.com. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glomerulonephritis/DS00503. Accessed Aug. 31, 2008.
- Donadio JV, et al. The long-term outcome of patients with IgA nephropathy treated with fish oil in a controlled trial. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 1999;10(8):1772-1777.
- Donadio JV, et al. IgA nephropathy. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2002;738-748.
- Coppo R, et al. IgACE: A placebo-controlled, randomized trial of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in children and young people with IgA nephropathy and moderate proteinuria. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 2007;18(6):1880-1888.
- Barratt J, et al. Causes and diagnosis of IgA nephropathy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index/html. Accessed Aug. 31, 2008.
- Cattran DC, et al. Treatment and prognosis of IgA nephropathy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Aug. 31, 2008.
- Coppo R, et al. Factors predicting progression of IgA nephropathies. Journal of Nephrology. 2005;18(5):503-512.
- Gharavi AG, et al. IgA nephropathy, the most common cause of glomerulonephritis, is linked to 6q22-23. Nature Genetics. 2000;26:354-357.
