Acute kidney injury with hypoxic respiratory failure

A 27-year-old Caucasian man was transferred from a remote clinic with acute kidney injury for the prior 7-10 days preceded by gastroenteritis. His kidney biopsy showed non-specific mesangiopathic glomerular changes, minimal tubulointerstitial disease without sclerosis, crescents, nor evidence of vasculitis. On his third hospital day, he developed acute hypoxic respiratory failure requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation. Pulmonary renal syndromes ranked highest on his differential diagnosis. He was extubated after 2 days of mechanical ventilation and after pulse dose steroids. His lung biopsy showed pulmonary capillaritis. Our case describes a patient with clinically appearing renopulmonary syndrome, but found to have pulmonary capillaritis, a rare form of lung disease that may also cause acute kidney injury.