Papers of the Week

Hydralazine is a vasodilator used in the treatment of resistant hypertension. It is a safe and widely used antihypertensive medicine. Its common adverse effects include headache, rebound tachycardia, fluid retention, and angina. It is a rare cause of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis (AAV) with pulmonary and renal involvement. We report a case of a 74-year-old woman, with over eight years of use of hydralazine, who presented to the hospital with shortness of breath and cough. Blood work revealed deranged renal function with high creatinine levels. Serology workup was positive for anti-histone antibodies (AHA), anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA), myeloperoxidase (MPO) ANCA and proteinase-3 (PR-3) ANCA. Renal biopsy showed diffusely flattened tubular epithelium, focal micro vesicular degeneration, and focal loss of the brush border of the proximal tubular epithelium. Hydralazine was stopped and the patient was treated with corticosteroids, resulting in the resolution of her kidney injury.