Allograft membranous glomerulonephritis and renal-vein thrombosis in a patient with a lupus anticoagulant factor.

A circulating lupus anticoagulant factor was detected in a 38-year-old man with end-stage renal disease and a 'lupus-like' syndrome with a diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis. When treated with steroids, the 'lupus' complications were controlled and the anticoagulant factor disappeared; however, renal function did not recover and the patient commenced regular haemodialysis. Four months later the patient received a cadaver kidney transplant. At transplantation and during follow-up there was neither clinical nor laboratory evidence of lupus activity, but 19 months after transplantation, when steroids were tapered to a low dose, the lupus anticoagulant factor was detected, and renal-vein thrombosis complicated by sepsis led to the patient's death. A membranous glomerulonephritis was found on autopsy. This is the first time in which a (probably 'de novo') membranous glomerulonephritis has been detected in the allograft of a patient with circulating lupus anticoagulant factor.