Pulmonary hemorrhage and glomerulonephritis in primary biliary cirrhosis

We observed life-threatening intrapulmonary hemorrhages and focal proliferative glomerulonephritis in a 41-yr-old woman with primary biliary cirrhosis. The severity of the symptoms necessitated blood transfusions and mechanical ventilation; the patient improved with the help of corticosteroid therapy. No formal evidence of either Goodpasture's syndrome or any other well-defined systemic vasculitis could be found. Neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies were initially positive and became undetectable after 3 mo of immunosuppressive treatment without relapse. This association has not been described previously and may be added to the list of extrahepatic immune-mediated conditions associated with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Familial infantile nephrotic syndrome with ocular abnormalities

Two siblings born from consanguineous parents experienced infantile nephrotic syndrome with ocular and neurological abnormalities; the boy also had a micropenis; both patients died before age 1 year. An initial renal biopsy followed by a two-step binephrectomy allowed good histological assessment of disease progression in one patient. The progression of the lesions was characterized by mesangial involvement, then an extensive extracapillary proliferation and tubular dilatations with a high mitotic activity of the epithelium and nuclei of unequal size. The main features involved major ultrastructural changes of the glomerular basement membrane. These two patients may represent a new disease entity or a severe form of diffuse mesangial sclerosis, with autosomal recessive inheritance.