History & Background
The Halpin Foundation had its beginnings in trying to comprehend a kidney disease called membranous glomerulonephritis.
Membranous, we were told, is the most common primary cause of nephrotic syndrome in adult patients. It is characterized by basement membrane thickening and sub-epithelial immune deposits. We came to understand this more simply as a form of progressive kidney disease which causes sclerosis and interferes with filtration. These type lesions have been seen in patients with diabetes mellitus, renal vein thrombosis, cancer and autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematsus. It has been described as-and sometimes is still considered-idiopathic.
Membranous is a predominately adult, male disease. Therefore, when our 14 year old son was diagnosed with membranous in the winter of 1989, we were incredulous. He had presented with hematuria/blood and protein during his yearly physical examination, and a subsequent biopsy was performed at Yale-New Haven Hospital under the direction of Dr.Norman Siegel, head of pediatric nephrology.
We were asked if anyone in our family had kidney disease. Yes, a cousin of mine had died of some form of kidney problem. (I would afterward undertake the study of genealogy to discover the family's medical history; we now have more than 1500 relatives in our database.) We ascertained that there were several cases of Bright's disease (non-specific kidney disease), diabetic nephropathy and renal cell carcinoma in my husband's family.
Next, we were asked if our son had had a strep infection or had used NSAID? Had he been exposed to formaldehyde, mercury, or gold?