TO THE 235TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDER OF MODERN NEPHROLOGY RICHARD BRIGHT

In September 2024, the 235th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding researcher, physician, and anatomist – the British scientist Professor Richard Bright – was celebrated. The phenomenon of Bright as a scientist is an example of a pioneering scientist who first created a systematic approach to comparing clinical and laboratory manifestations of a disease, identified during the patient’s lifetime, with the pathological anatomical changes of the organ after death. The scientist, for the first time, surpassing the dogmas of 19th-century medicine, substantiated the relationship between fluid retention in the patient’s body and the appearance of protein in the urine (edema and albuminuria) as a kidney disease. Thanks to this innovative approach, he linked it to pathologicoanatomical, and later to pathohistological changes in the organ, thereby laying the foundation for a scientific approach to the study of renal pathology; he identified the main morphological forms of kidney diseases. Clinician Bright first described the clinical picture of nephritis (glomerulonephritis with nephritic syndrome), indicated the causes of its development, therapeutic approaches, and the possibility of prevention. By assessing the relationship between myocardial hypertrophy, developing as a result of hypertension, and kidney pathology, he laid the foundation for future studies of pathophysiological connections in cardiorenal syndrome. For the first time, in collaboration with chemists, Bright established pathognomonic paraclinical signs in edema syndrome – renal dropsy (hypoproteinemia, lipidemia) and uremia (accumulation of nitrogenous waste in the blood serum, hyposthenuria). It was Richard Bright who created the world’s first nephrological department with wards for men and women with a capacity of 42 beds. The purpose of this review was to summarize data on the life, scientific research, and work of the outstanding English physician and scientist – Richard Bright. The literature search was carried out in Russian and English in the Pubmed databases and open access Internet using key word combinations.