Recurrent fulminant anti-glomerular basement membrane nephritis at a 7-year interval.

True recurrence of anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) nephritis is very rare, both in native kidneys and after renal transplantation. We report the recurrence of fulminant anti-GBM nephritis in a kidney graft recipient after the spontaneous withdrawal of immunosuppressive treatment more than 5 years after renal transplantation. The initial episode of anti-GBM nephritis had destroyed the native kidneys 7 years earlier. Circulating anti-GBM antibodies had disappeared for 14 months at the time of transplantation and reappeared with recurrence. This observation challenges the concept of anti-GBM nephritis as a single-shot illness and emphasises the need to consider the possibility of recurrence, even in the long term, among patients who underwent transplantation for anti-GBM nephritis.