Causes of Glomerulonephritis: Infections (Nursing)

00:01 Okay, let's talk about infections.

00:03 Now any pediatric nurses out there? Okay, you're definitely going to want to pay attention to this because one of the infections that can cause glomerulonephritis is streptococcus.

00:15 So you want to watch your petite pediatric patients very very closely, because post streptococcal glomerulonephritis is a real option you want to have to educate your patients So they're aware that this could be a possibility because you would want them notify their health care provider as soon as possible and they start seeing the symptoms.

00:36 Now, it develops usually about one to two weeks after a streptococcal infection.

00:41 So if I'm taking care of a patient and they have streptococcus, I want to make sure they understand Hey if you notice any changes in your urine output, in the color that you let us know right away because we want to be on the alert for post streptococcal glomerulonephritis.

00:59 So how long does it take to develop? Yeah about one to two weeks.

01:03 So you want to be sure to educate your patients about that.

01:06 So how does this whole thing work? Well antibodies to the strep antigen develop in deposit in the glomerulus.

01:13 So think why that would be a problem.

01:15 Remember the glomerulus tangle of these little tiny capillaries inside Bowman's capsule if these antibodies are depositing themselves in there, It's going to clog everything up takes about one to two weeks for this to happen, but that's what you want to be on the alert for.

01:32 Now, the other one will be a lot rarer for you to see but still a possibility.

01:37 We've talked about streptococcal infections.

01:39 This is like endocarditis bacterial endocarditis is an infection of one or more of the heart valve.

01:46 So endocarditis you've got inflammation in a heart valve.

01:51 Now, there's an increased risk for endocarditis for people who have a heart defect especially if they have a heart valve with damaged or they've got some type of artificial heart valve.

02:00 So keep that in mind if someone has endocarditis, that's a bacterial endocarditis, it's an infection of one or more of the heart valves.

02:10 When those guys get inflamed.

02:12 They're not going to be able to manage blood flow like we need them to Remember, what a supposed to go in and out all in one direction not squishing back and forth both ways.

02:23 So when you have an infected valve you have an ineffective valve.

02:27 So someone who has endocarditis also has an increase risk for glomerulonephritis.

02:34 Now, let's talk about some viral beasties.

02:36 We're still in infections.

02:37 We talked about post streptococcal, we talked about endocarditis that was bacterial.

02:43 Now we're looking at viral.

02:46 Sadly these are some bad dudes, right? Viruses are nasty.

02:50 They're the ones that come in take over your cells and make your own cells make copies of the bad viruses.

02:56 Some of the ones that you want to be on the lookout for would be HIV human immunodeficiency virus, Hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

03:06 So these are infections where the patient can also develop glomerulonephritis.