Acute kidney injury secondary to Djenkol bean ingestion

Archidendron pauciflorum, the djenkol bean, is a traditional food eaten throughout Southeast Asia and is known to be nephrotoxic and result in a syndrome termed "djenkolism" in areas where it is endemic. This is a 10-year-old male who presented to the emergency department with abdominal pain and frank hematuria following ingestion of djenkol beans the prior afternoon. His laboratory evaluation was significant for gross hematuria and acute renal injury. Other causes of acute renal injury were excluded. The patient was started on a bicarbonate infusion and admitted overnight with improvement of renal function and resolution of frank hematuria, and was ultimately discharged home. Djenkolism is a known cause of acute renal injury and hematuria in Southeast Asia and has been identified as a possible cause of subclinical chronic renal injury in endemic areas. To our knowledge, this is the first report of djenkolism in the United States.