[Clinical case of the month. Galloping nephropathy in a patient with type 2 diabetes]

We report the case of a patient with insulin-requiring type 2 diabetes who exhibited a rapid deterioration of his renal function leading to haemodialysis in a few months. Various diagnosis were considered to explain this rapid deterioration, excluding diabetic nephropathy as major etiology. The exploration, especially renal biopsy, demonstrated the presence of a glomerulonephritis due to the deposition of immune complexes associated to active hepatitis C rather than diabetic glomerulosclerosis. A treatment with interferon-alpha allowed to partially restore renal function, this recovery permitting the interruption of hemodialysis, with a current follow-up of more than 6 months.