Coexistence of Fabry's disease and necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis

The coexistence of Fabry's disease, an X-linked hereditary disease, and other renal diseases, has rarely been described in the same patient. Combined Fabry's disease and pauci-immune necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis (NCGN) is hitherto unreported. We present the clinical and pathologic data of two patients with combined Fabry's disease and NCGN. Both patients presented with fevers of unknown origin and progressive renal insufficiency, however, lacked any other pathognomic signs of Fabry's disease such as acroparesthesias, dyshidrosis, and cutaneous angiokeratomas. The possible pathogenic mechanisms and causal relationship between the two disease processes are discussed.