Elderly-onset anticentromere antibody-positive pulmonary-renal syndrome: report of an autopsy case]

We report an autopsy case of elderly-onset anticentromere antibody-positive pulmonary-renal syndrome. An 84-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with complaints of leg edema and general malaise. Neither skin rush nor arthritis was seen. Because of hematuria, proteinuria with various casts, renal dysfunction and anemia, a clinically diagnosis of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis was made. Slight pulmonary hypertension was observed in ultrasonic cardiography. Hypocomplementemia was not seen. Tests for MPO- and PR 3-anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies and anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody were negative, but a high titer of antinuclear antibody with a discrete speckled pattern on immunofluorescent staining was disclosed. Results for anticentromere antibody and anti-Ki antibody were positive, but for anti-Sm antibody and anti-double stranded DNA antibody were both negative. She did not present any clinical features of systemic sclerosis or CREST syndrome. Subsequently, prednisolone was administered, but pulmonary alveolar hemorrhage occurred and the patient died of acute respiratory failure caused by massive pulmonary hemorrhage. Autopsy revealed crescentic glomerulonephritis including glomerular capillaritis and pulmonary capillaritis with positive granular deposits of immunoglobulins and compliment on the glomerular and pulmonary capillary walls. Immunologically mediated crescentic glomerulonephritis and pulmonary capillaritis was then diagnosed histopathologically. The main pathological feature of the case was small-vessel vasculitis with immune-complex deposition. Although this case did not fulfill the clinical criteria for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), its histological features resembled those of lupus nephritis and acute lupus pneumonitis. We speculated that anticentromere antibody-positive pulmonary-renal syndrome without any other symptoms or signs of connective tissue disease, such as our case, is a clinical entity distinct from typical SLE or CREST syndrome.