Acute renal failure subsequent to the administration of rifampicin. A follow-up study of cases reported earlier.

A clinical presentation is made of a 2-3 year follow-up of six cases of acute renal failure that have been reported earlier. The patients had developed transient renal failure after the intermittent administration of rifampicin. The stage of olig-anuria lasted for 1-3 weeks, and five of the patients were treated by hemodialysis. Two of the patients died due to unrelated causes during the follow-up period. The four patients re-examined were clinically cured. Pathologic findings by light microscopy and immunofluorescence at biopsy were scarce. Nothing abnormal was seen by electron microscopy in two of the cases studied. Renal function was normal. In three cases the excretion at 131I-hippuran renography was slightly slowed. Although in the acute stage the renal lesions histologically appeared toxic, evidence suggestive of an immunological mechanism cannot be excluded.