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      Initial diagnosis of Wegener’s granulomatosis mimicking severe ulcerative colitis: a case report

      case-report

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          Abstract

          Introduction

          We describe the case of a woman with an unusual presentation of Wegener’s granulomatosis.

          Case presentation

          A 20-year old Caucasian woman presented with the principal feature of a pancolonic, superficial microulceration mimicking severe ulcerative colitis. Our patient was refractory to therapy and had persisting signs of septic shock as well as being at risk of perforation, so we performed a subtotal colectomy and a cholecystectomy due to the incipient necrosis of her gallbladder. Histologic analysis of her colon showed multiple superficial microulcera of the mucosa, lamina propria mucosae and, to a lesser extent, the lamina submucosa. The medium-sized arteries and arterioles of her entire colon, appendix and gallbladder showed acute vasculitic changes with fibrinoid necrosis of the walls and diffuse infiltration with neutrophil granulocytes, accompanied by a strong perivascular histiocyte-rich and partially granulomatous reaction. These findings strongly suggested an autoimmune multisystem disease like Wegener’s granulomatosis or microscopic polyangiitis. A diagnosis of Wegener’s granulomatosis was confirmed by the results of serologic antibody tests: her cytoplasmic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody titer was considerably elevated at 1:2560 specific for subclass proteinase 3 (>200kU/L). After the histopathological diagnosis and serological tests, immunosuppression with high doses of corticosteroids and plasmapheresis was started.

          Conclusion

          In critically ill patients with severe, therapy-refractory ulcerative colitis, Wegener´s granulomatosis should be considered and serologic antibody testing should be performed.

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          Most cited references28

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          Wegener granulomatosis: an analysis of 158 patients.

          To prospectively study the clinical features, pathophysiology, treatment and prognosis of Wegener granulomatosis. Of the 180 patients with Wegener granulomatosis referred to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the past 24 years, 158 have been followed for 6 months to 24 years (a total of 1229 patient-years). Characteristics of clinical presentation, surgical pathology, course of illness, laboratory and radiographic findings, and the results of medical and surgical treatment have been recorded in a computer-based information retrieval system. The Warren Magnuson Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. Men and women were equally represented; 97% of patients were white, and 85% were more than 19 years of age. The mean period of follow-up was 8 years. One hundred and thirty-three patients (84%) received "standard" therapy with daily low-dose cyclophosphamide and glucocorticoids. Eight (5.0%) received only low-dose cyclophosphamide. Six (4.0%) never received cyclophosphamide and were treated with other cytotoxic agents and glucocorticoids. Ten patients (6.0%) were treated with only glucocorticoids. Ninety-one percent of patients experienced marked improvement, and 75% achieved complete remission. Fifty percent of remissions were associated with one or more relapses. Of 99 patients followed for greater than 5 years, 44% had remissions of greater than 5 years duration. Thirteen percent of patients died of Wegener granulomatosis, treatment-related causes, or both. Almost all patients had serious morbidity from irreversible features of their disease (86%) or side effects of treatment (42%). The course of Wegener granulomatosis has been dramatically improved by daily treatment with cyclophosphamide and glucocorticoids. Nonetheless, disease- and treatment-related morbidity is often profound. Alternative forms of therapy have not yet achieved the high rates of remission induction and successful maintenance that have been reported with daily cyclophosphamide treatment. Despite continued therapeutic success with cyclophosphamide, our long-term follow-up of patients with Wegener granulomatosis has led to increasing concerns about toxicity resulting from prolonged cyclophosphamide therapy and has encouraged investigation of other therapeutic regimens.
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            Wegener's granulomatosis: prospective clinical and therapeutic experience with 85 patients for 21 years.

            Eighty-five patients with Wegener's granulomatosis were studied for 21 years at the National Institutes of Health. Patients were treated with a protocol consisting of cyclophosphamide, 2 mg/kg body weight d, together with prednisone, 1 mg/kg body weight d, followed by conversion of the prednisone to an alternate-day regimen. Complete remissions were achieved in 79 of 85 patients (93%). The mean duration of remission for living patients was 48.2 (+/- 3.6) months. Twenty-three patients are off all therapy for a mean duration of 35.3 (+/- 6.3) months without therapy. This study provides a prospective experience with Wegener's granulomatosis and shows that long-term remissions can be induced and maintained in an extremely high number of patients by the combination of daily cyclophosphamide and alternate-day prednisone therapy.
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              Giant-cell granuloma of the respiratory tract (Wegener's granulomatosis).

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                J Med Case Rep
                J Med Case Rep
                Journal of Medical Case Reports
                BioMed Central
                1752-1947
                2013
                29 May 2013
                : 7
                : 141
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of General, Visceral and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
                [2 ]Institute of Pathology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
                Article
                1752-1947-7-141
                10.1186/1752-1947-7-141
                3674933
                23718545
                8f530022-6e92-44a5-bdbe-c178b3cd674a
                Copyright ©2013 Timmermann et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 22 January 2013
                : 21 March 2013
                Categories
                Case Report

                Medicine
                Medicine

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