CASE REPORT
Membranous Nephropathy Associated with Atheroembolism
Kiyotaka Uchiyama1, *, Tamiko Takemura2, Yoshitaka Ishibashi1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2017Volume: 10
First Page: 29
Last Page: 33
Publisher ID: TOUNJ-10-29
DOI: 10.2174/1874303X01710010029
Article History:
Received Date: 16/03/2017Revision Received Date: 04/05/2017
Acceptance Date: 05/05/2017
Electronic publication date: 30/06/2017
Collection year: 2017
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Membranous nephropathy (MN) is one of the most common biopsy diagnoses in adults, and it has been associated with chronic infections, autoimmune diseases, malignancies, and drugs. However, MN associated with cholesterol crystal emboli has never been reported. Here we present a patient with MN as an unusual manifestation of atheroembolism.
A 75-year-old man with worsening renal function after catheter ablation developed moderate proteinuria and underwent a renal biopsy. Findings on light, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy were all compatible with membranous nephropathy. Moreover, one occluded interlobular artery contained a pathognomonic, biconvex, needle-shaped cleft, which indicated a cholesterol crystal emboli. The degree of proteinuria was in parallel with the number of eosinophils, which indicated a close relationship between MN disease activity and renal atheroembolism. Hypereosinophilic syndrome secondary to atheroembolism may cause MN; thus, corticosteroid therapy was likely to be effective.
