The Wages of Thin

Isolated glomerular hematuria associated with a renal biopsy finding of excessively thin glomerular basement membrane (GBM) may occur as a familial or sporadic condition. Neither of the two terms commonly used to describe these patients, benign familial hematuria or thin basement membrane disease, is entirely satisfactory. Familial hematuria is not always benign, and benign hematuria is not always familial. Basement membrane thinning is a descriptive observation, rather than a specific diagnostic finding, and it is clear that several disorders that differ at the molecular level can be associated with this abnormality.