[Churg-Strauss vasculitis in a 53-year-old man]

The Authors describe a 53 year old patient, who, after suffering from asthma over the past 10 years, presented with abdominal pain, diarrhoea, dyspnea, petechias on lower limbs, and subsequently developed fever, polyneuritis, pericardial effusion and renal failure. Laboratory showed elevated IgE, presence of antinuclear antibodies to DNA, serum rheumatoid factor and peripheral eosinophilia. The clinical course was suggestive for systemic vasculitis; lung, skin biopsies and renal angiography confirmed this diagnosis: the association with asthma and eosinophilia fulfill the diagnosis of allergic angiitis and granulomatosis (Churg-Strauss syndrome).