Pulmonary-renal Syndrome

Series of 12 cases

Abstract

Pulmonary-renal syndrome is an infrequent condition. It includes a wide variety of conditions such as ANCA (antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody) associated with systemic vasculitis and anti-GBM (anti-glomerular basement membrane) disease among others. In this series we describe twelve cases , in which the most prevalent diseases were the above mentioned as well as one case of lupus and one of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (these being less frequent causes). The clinical presentation was both renal and pulmonary simultaneously in five of twelve patients and renal in seven of twelve patients.
Early diagnosis of this condition on the basis of clinical, radiological, histological and analytic criteria allows early treatments such as immunosuppression and plasma exchange, thus avoiding complications such as infections (the main cause of death) and terminal chronic renal failure.