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ISEASES involving the renal glomeruli are encountered frequently in clinical practice and are the most common causes of end-stage renal disease worldwide. In the United States alone, glomerular diseases accounted for 51 percent of the 305,876 cases of treated end-stage renal disease that were reported to the U.S. Renal Data System between 1991 and 1995, including 115,938 cases of diabetic nephropathy (37.9 percent) and 41,333 cases of nondiabetic glomerular disease (13.5 per-cent). 1 Some common glomerular diseases do not cause progressive renal failure but are important causes of morbidity and sources of considerable medical ex