History of IgAN

The Foundation for IgA Nephropathy

History of IgAN

IgAN was first described and differentiated from other types of glomerulonephritis by Dr. J. Berger, in France, around 1968, when research instrumentation had become available that made it possible to better analyse kidney tissues.

In France particularly, it is more often referred to as "la maladie de Berger", or Berger's Disease. Before that time, it would have simply been vaguely considered to be glomerulonephritis (primarily what was called focal nephritis at that time, where nephritis means inflammation of the nephrons and focal is a pathology term - see IgAN Glossary). Some older people might have been said to have suffered from Bright's Disease, which was a generic, catch all name for these diseases at one time.

Until the late 1980's and even into the1990's, IgAN was regarded by many as a mostly benign disease, and many doctors, even nephrologists, sometimes didn't pay as much attention to it as they could have - until patients were in a more advanced stage of renal failure. Today, IgAN is specifically diagnosed much sooner after the first symptoms appear or are discovered, and nephrologists are much more active in pre-end stage care of their IgAN patients.

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