H Katner | PubMed Health

PubMed1984

Loiasis and renal failure.

A patient with a filarial infection due to Loa loa and renal failure was treated with a modified regimen of diethylcarbamazine while receiving hemodialysis. Infection with Loa loa may be associated with glomerulonephritis due to immunologically mediated injury. Serum immune complexes were elevated in our patient, and a kidney biopsy specimen revealed globally sclerosed glomeruli. As gauged by the clearance of the microfilaremia, the treatment regimen proved safe and effective.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Anemia secondary to combined deficiencies of iron and cobalamin.

The focus of attention on combined-deficiency anemia is often on concurrent deficiencies of cobalamin (vitamin B12) and folate, emphasizing the correction of megaloblastic changes with folate alone and risking neurologic sequelae of uncorrected simultaneous cobalamin deficiency. Simultaneous deficiencies of cobalamin and iron, however, may be a more common cause of combined-deficiency anemia. Variability in red blood cell morphologic characteristics in this setting reflects the relative degree of deficiency of each of these substrates. A patient with combined cobalamin and iron deficiency anemia with microcytic, hypochromic indices and the absence of hypersegmented neutrophils was treated. This case and the literature reviewed emphasize the need to consider combined-deficiency states in all cases of anemia.

Adult↗