Fulminant Wegener’s granulomatosis with multiorgan dysfunction

• Authors: Andreja Sinkovic , Artur Pahor
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Fulminant cases of Wegener’s granulomatosis (WG) with severe lung and kidney dysfunction may resemble pneumonia with sepsis and multiorgan dysfunction. Increased serum levels of antineutrophyl citoplasmic autoantibodies (c-ANCA) and proteinase 3 antibodies (PR3) confirm the correct diagnosis and are essential to start early immunosupressive treatment to improve the outcome. With the emphasis on diagnostic dilemmas, we present a 61-year old patient with fulminant WG, resembling pneumonia with sepsis and multiorgan dysfunction. After antibiotics and supportive measures increased serum levels of c-ANCA and PR3 confirmed the suspicion of WG and adequate immunosupressive treatment improved the patient’s condition. We concluded that it is important to include vasculitis in the differential diagnosis of unexplained multiorgan dysfunction, because only early adequate immunosuppressive therapy in combination with other resuscitation measures improves survival.

Keywords

EN

Acute respiratory failure; Immunosuppressed patient; Wegener’s granulomatosis

• Publisher: De Gruyter Open
• Journal: Open Medicine
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 119-122

Dates

published

1 - 3 - 2008

online

1 - 3 - 2008

Contributors

author

Andreja Sinkovic

• Department of Medical Intensive Care, Teaching Hospital Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

author

Artur Pahor

• Department of Rheumatology, Teaching Hospital Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/s11536-007-0067-6