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Abstract
We describe a case of a 48-year-old woman who presented with acute respiratory failure due to diffuse alveolar haemorrhage and acute renal failure due to pauci-immune glomerulonephritis consistent with a new diagnosis of microscopic polyangiitis (MPA). The patient had a recent SARS-CoV-2 infection 6 weeks before MPA diagnosis and had stopped immunosuppression for her rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at that time. The patient was treated with pulse intravenous steroids, plasma exchange therapy and rituximab, which induced remission of her illness. This case highlights a timely dilemma of holding immunosuppression in a RA patient with low disease activity on combination therapy with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the potential risk of developing an additional autoimmune disease, such as vasculitis, given their existing autoimmunity due to RA.
- biological agents
- vasculitis
- rheumatoid arthritis
- acute renal failure
- COVID-19
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Footnotes
Twitter @sukhrajsingh_
Contributors SS, ZV and GSK participated in the management of the patient. SS reviewed the literature and drafted the manuscript. ZV, MT and GSK reviewed the draft. All the authors were involved in the production of the final edit and have approved the manuscript submitted.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer-reviewed.