I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Nephrology Cases #4

A sixty year old woman, previously healthy, is admitted for acute renal
failure. One week prior to admission she began to feel generally weak with
poor oral intake. There was no diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, or dysuria.
She did not smoke, drank two gin and tonics daily, and denied any other
drug use. She took no medications. She was seen by a physician two days
prior to admission, was found to have proteinuria and hematuria, and was
placed on amoxicillin for a presumed urinary tract infection. Her labs
subsequently showed a creatinine of 11, platelets of 23, LDH of 4000, and
normal PT and PTT.

The likeliest diagnosis is

1. Acute tubular necrosis related to volume depletion.
2. Thrombotic microangiopathy related to quinine.
3. Interstitial nephritis related to amoxicillin.
4. Hemolytic uremic syndrome related to E. Coli 0157:H7.
5. Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
6. Renal failure from disseminated intravascular coagulation.