Visceral leishmaniasis in a patient with sicca syndrome and nephropathy.

A 63-year-old woman presented with severe volume depletion and pre-renal azotemia. She had xerostomia, xerophthalmia and cervical lymhadenopathy. Urine examination revealed proteinuria, hematuria and glycosuria. Laboratory studies, after volume repletion, revealed hyper-gammaglobulinemia. Renal biopsy showed interstitial nephropathy and salivary-gland biopsy showed glandular atrophy and diffuse fibrosis. Diagnosis of leishmaniasis was established by bone marrow examination and serology. The patient was treated with pentavalent antimonial (Glucantime) with an excellent response. The treatment, however, had to be interrupted because of transient nephrotoxicity. After a break of four weeks, the antimonial was reinstituted with no more side effects. Both the sicca syndrome and the nephropathy responded very well to the treatment at nine months follow-up. In this case the presentation of visceral leishmaniasis was atypical, probably because of the partially suppressed immunity. The clue to the diagnosis was the polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia.