Abstract

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) or Horton’s disease is a systemic granulomatous vasculitis with segmental and multifocal involvement mainly affecting subjects over 50. Kidney damage is one of the so-called "extra-cranial" manifestations of GCA and is by far dominated by vasculitis of the renal arteries, with renovascular hypertension as a consequence. Parenchymal nephropathies are however exceptional during this angiitis. We report the original observation of acute renal failure caused by acute interstitial nephritis revealing GCA in a 66-year-old Tunisian woman with good outcome under systemic corticosteroids. To the best of our knowledge, cortico-sensitive acute interstitial nephritis has not been previously reported as a manifestation of this vasculitis.

Key words: Acute interstitial nephritis, Giant Cell Arteritis, Acute renal failure, Horton’s disease