Severe lupus after two years of hemodialysis: It exists and can be serious.

Abstract

Progression of lupus nephropathy (LN) to end-stage renal disease is a serious complication and requires subsequent replacement therapy. Lupus disease activity is extinguished in chronic hemodialysis. We report the observation of a 35-year-old female patient, in conventionnel hemodialysis for two years (chronic glomerulonephritis), admitted to the emergency room for convulsions, left flaccid tenderness, cutaneous-mucosal pallor and altered general condition evolving since three days before her admission. we also observed a spontaneous ecchymotic lesions on the right arm. Echodoppler of the right upper extremity was in favor of a partially thrombosed aneurysm of the right brachial artery. The biological workup showed pancytopenia, the requested immunological workup showed a low complement C₃, a positive level of anti-DNA antibodies. The patient was treated as severe lupus flare: Bolus of methylprednisolone, followed by oral administration, associated with Mycophenolate mofétil (MMF) at a dose of 1 g/d. The evolution was favorable on the clinical, biological and radiological levels. Systemic lupus erythematous (SLE) can occur even after several years of hemodialysis and sometimes in a severe form, pushing the clinician to think of this pathology in the presence of evocative signs.