Acute colitis in Wegener's disease: a case report
Lebas, E.; Gielen, S.; Nguyen, M.; Ghaye, B.; Bartsch, P.; Belaiche, J.
Revue Medicale de Liege 61(3): 163-168
2006
ISSN/ISBN: 0370-629X PMID: 16681002 Document Number: 600047
We report the case of a 52 year old man who was hospitalized within a context of a persistent deterioration of his general condition. He was suspected of having a chronic inflammatory colitis. A pulmonary radiography revealed the presence of voluminous bilateral excavated masses with hydro-aerical levels. After having refuted among others a suspicion of tuberculosis, the results of a thoracic percutaneous transpleural lung aspiration by needle under tomodensitometric control steered our diagnosis towards a vascularitis of the Wegener disease type. A treatment with corticotherapy in large doses completed with cyclophosphamid allowed for clinical, biological and radiological improvement. Wegener's granulomatosis usually starts in an insidious manner with febrile episodes and an impairment of the general condition associated with inflammatory biological signs, as observed in our patient. After these warning symptoms, come ORL and/or pulmonary and/or renal impairment, which represent the classical triad of diffused GW. However a certain number of particularities unusual for that diagnosis characterized our patient and prompted the discussion of this case.