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Necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis with membranous nephropathy in a patient exposed to levamisole-adulterated cocaine

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Levamisole is an antihelminthic agent widely used as an adulterant of illicit cocaine recently implicated as a cause of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated microscopic polyangiitis in cocaine abusers. An isolated case of membranous nephropathy (MN) associated with levamisole exposure has also been reported. We report the first case, to our knowledge, of a patient with both microscopic polyangiitis manifest as a pauci-immune necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis and concurrent MN in the setting of chronic cocaine abuse and presumed levamisole exposure, raising the hypothesis that levamisole was the causative agent in the development of this rare dual glomerulopathy.

Source: Clinical Kidney Journal

DOI: 10.1093/ckj/sfv141

Authors: Camillo Carrara, Stefano Emili, Mercury Lin, Charles E. Alpers

Institutions: Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXIII, University of Washington, University of Washington Medical Center

Language: English

Topic: Renal Diseases and Glomerulopathies

Subfield: Nephrology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,335