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Anti-GBM (Goodpasture’s) disease: the signs, when to get help, the tests, and the treatment
For someone who has, or may have, anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease, sometimes called Goodpasture’s disease, and the people beside them. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: what it is, who is more likely to get it, what may cause it, the signs, when to get help right away, the tests, the treatment with medicines and plasma exchange, the complications, and keeping it from coming back. It builds the questions to ask and prints a wallet card. Nothing is saved.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Coughing up blood, trouble breathing, or chest pain? Call 911 (ours).
- Pink or cola-colored urine, swelling in your feet and legs, or foamy urine? NIDDK says to seek a health care professional’s help right away; without treatment, anti-GBM disease can quickly get worse.
- Thoughts of suicide, or all too much? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- On this site: Glomerular disease · Blood in the urine · Nephrotic syndrome · Lupus nephritis · A cough, a fever, or trouble breathing · Quit smoking · Kidneys, bladder and urine: find the right page.
- If the kidneys need help: Hemodialysis · Peritoneal dialysis · Kidney transplant · Kidney failure: choosing a treatment · Kidney biopsy · High blood pressure · My medicines · Caring for someone · Depression.
- When it is hard to pay: Paying for kidney failure treatment · When you need a doctor and can’t pay · Medical bills. Getting ready: Get ready for your appointment.
- In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Kidneys, bladder or urine, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for bladder infections, kidney stones, blood in the urine, bladder pain, bladder leaks, the prostate, kidney disease and bedwetting, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Anemia: the signs, getting tested, iron and vitamin B12, and treatment: anemia: the signs, getting tested, iron and vitamin B12, and treatment.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 20, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Anti-GBM (Goodpasture’s) Disease (last reviewed April 2020). The numbers (about 1 in 1 million new cases a year; men in their 20s and women in their 60s; plasmapheresis for 2 to 3 weeks; medicines for up to 9 months) are NIDDK’s, and we add none. The medicine names are only the ones NIDDK names, and we give no doses. Ours: the 911 line; going to urgent care if you cannot reach your team; never stopping or changing a medicine on your own; asking what to do about a fever or an infection; telling the team plainly about smoking, chemicals, dusts and drugs; 988; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s section on research studies and its references. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.