Article Text
Summary
Goodpasture's disease without circulating autoantibodies is a rare presentation of a rare diagnosis. We present the case of a man aged 17 years who had 3 hospital admissions over a 2-month period with haemoptysis and shortness of breath. Throughout his first 2 admissions, his renal function was normal and anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibodies were negative. CT pulmonary angiogram during his second admission revealed florid and diffuse alveolar infiltrates. However, high-resolution CT chest performed 4 weeks later showed complete resolution of these changes. On his third admission, he developed acute kidney injury. A repeat CT chest revealed the reappearance of initial findings and anti-GBM antibodies were now positive. Goodpasture's disease was subsequently confirmed with renal biopsy. Our case, with delayed onset of renal impairment, initial seronegativity for anti-GBM antibodies and relapsing and remitting CT findings, emphasises the need to consider this diagnosis in the setting of otherwise unexplained pulmonary haemorrhage.
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Footnotes
Contributors EAB identified and managed the case, performed a literature search and drafted and revised the report. She is the guarantor. SS identified the case, did the literature search and drafted and revised the report. RY revised the report.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.