Pulmonary-renal syndrome

[Couch Potatoe]

Pulmonary-renal syndrome combines both diffuse alveolar hemorrhage (recurrent or persistent bleeding into the lungs) and glomerulonephritis (damage to the microscopic blood vessels in the kidneys in which people have body swelling, high blood pressure, and red blood cells in the urine).

Pulmonary-renal syndrome is almost always caused by an autoimmune disorder.
Diagnostic testing involves urinalysis, blood tests for certain proteins (antibodies) that indicate the body is reacting to its own tissues, and sometimes analysis of tissue from a lung or a kidney.
Treatment requires corticosteroids and often cyclophosphamide (a chemotherapy drug) or rituximab and other drugs that suppress the body