[A new syndrome: acute interstitial nephropathy with uveitis. Apropos of a case]

A 17 year old female presented with an acute interstitial nephritis and anterior uveitis. She had constitutional symptoms, a biological inflammatory syndrome, circulating immune complexes and a negative tuberculin reaction. None of the usual causes of acute interstitial nephritis and/or uveitis was found; the infectious diseases work-up was negative and the diagnosis of Behcet's syndrome and sarcoidosis were excluded. The nephritis regressed spontaneously within a few weeks; the uveitis responded to local steroids. A review of the literature revealed 26 similar cases, which suggests that this syndrome is more than a coincidental association. The kidney and the eye could be target organs of humoral and cellular immune reactions to an acute antigenic aggression; the nature of this remains unclear.