Question:medium

A child develops cola-coloured urine, periorbital oedema and hypertension two weeks after a sore throat. Urine microscopy shows red blood cell casts. On electron microscopy of the renal biopsy, which finding is characteristic of this condition?

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Post-strep nephritic syndrome - think where the immune deposits sit on EM.
Updated On: Jun 25, 2026
  • Subepithelial electron-dense “humps”
  • Subendothelial deposits with “tram-track” basement membrane splitting
  • Diffuse effacement of podocyte foot processes with no deposits
  • Linear ribbon-like deposits along the glomerular basement membrane
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The Correct Option is A

Solution and Explanation

Diagnose first, then localise the lesion. A nephritic child - smoky/cola urine, $RBC$ casts, oedema and hypertension - presenting roughly two weeks after pharyngitis (or six weeks after skin infection) with a nephritogenic strain of group A streptococcus has post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis.

The pathology is immune-complex mediated. Antigen-antibody complexes lodge on the outer, subepithelial aspect of the glomerular basement membrane, producing discrete dome-shaped electron-dense deposits the classic literature calls humps. Immunofluorescence corroborates this with coarse granular $IgG$ and $C3$ in a starry-sky distribution; serum complement ($C3$) is transiently low.

Each distractor belongs elsewhere: tram-tracking with subendothelial deposits is membranoproliferative GN, universal foot-process effacement without deposits is minimal change disease, and a smooth linear GBM pattern is anti-GBM disease.

\[\boxed{\text{PSGN} \Rightarrow \text{subepithelial electron-dense humps on EM}}\]
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