Disorders of immune reconstitution in patients with HIV infection

AKI in an HIV patient

The renal manifestations of patients infected with HIV are diverse. Patients may have podocytopathies ranging from a minimal-change-type lesions to FSGS or collapsing glomerulopathy. Furthermore, such patients produce a variety of autoantibodies without clinical signs of the disease. Antiretroviral drugs also cause renal injury, including crystals and tubular injury, acute interstitial nephritis, or mitochondrial toxicity. In these circumstances, it is essential to perform a renal biopsy for diagnosis and to guide treatment. Here we describe a patient with HIV who presented with AKI and hematuria without concomitant systemic manifestations. Renal biopsy elucidated the cause of acute deterioration of kidney function.