[Legionnaires disease associated with acute renal failure]

It has been suggested that tubular-interstitial damage may be the main cause of Legionnaires disease (LD) associated acute renal failure (ARF). However, this hypothesis has rarely been examined. In China we firstly describe four patients with LD-ARF, who had proteinuria, hematuria, Leukocyturia and cylindruria. Two patients had nephrotic syndrome indicating acute glomerular injure, one of them was histopathologically proven to be rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. Scr, UNa, RFI and FENa are markedly increased. Our results suggest that both tubular-interstitial and glomerular damage may be the important causes of LD-ARF in Chinese LD patients. To confirm this hypothesis further investigation are needed.