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Wegener’s granulomatosis mimicking inflammatory bowel disease and presenting with chronic enteritis

Authors Shahedi K, Hanna RM, Melamed O, Wilson J

Received 31 July 2012

Accepted for publication 24 July 2013

Published 7 October 2013 Volume 2013:6 Pages 65—69

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IMCRJ.S36546

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 2



Kamyar Shahedi,1,2 Ramy Magdy Hanna,1,2 Oleg Melamed,1,2 James Wilson2,3

1Department of Medicine Olive-View UCLA Medical Center, Sylmar, CA, 2David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 3UCLA Medical Center-UCLA Stone Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Abstract: Wegener’s granulomatosis, also known as anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, is a small vessel vasculitis with primarily pulmonary, renal, and sinus disease manifestations. The prevalence of Wegener’s granulomatosis is three cases per 100,000 patients. Cardiovascular, neurologic, cutaneous, and joint manifestations have been reported in many case reports and case series. Gastrointestinal manifestations are less noted in Wegener’s granulomatosis, although they have been previously reported in the form of intestinal perforation and intestinal ischemia. Additionally, there are characteristic findings of vasculitis that are noted with active Wegener’s granulomatosis of the small bowel. We report a case of an elderly patient who presented with weight loss, diarrhea, and hematochezia. His symptoms were chronic and had lasted for more than 1 year before diagnosis. Inflammatory bowel disease or chronic enteritis due to Salmonella arizonae because of reptile exposure originally were suspected as etiologies of his presentation. The findings of proteinuria, renal failure, and pauci-immune glomerulonephritis on renal biopsy, in conjunction with an elevated c-ANCA titer, confirmed the diagnosis of Wegener’s granulomatosis with associated intestinal vasculitis. This case demonstrates an atypical presentation of chronic duodenitis and jejunitis secondary to Wegener’s granulomatosis, which mimicked inflammatory bowel disease.

Keywords: ANCA-associated vasculitis, Wegener’s syndrome, pauci-immune glomerulonephritis, Salmonella arizonae, inflammatory bowel disease

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