Metastatic Pulmonary Calcification in a Hemodialysis Patient after Renal Transplantation

This is the case of a 64-year-old man, on renal replacement therapy since 2008, due to autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. The patient was on peritoneal dialysis from 2008 to 2016, when he underwent renal transplantation. Transplant duration was less than a month due to acute vascular rejection. Since then, he is on hemodialysis. A few months after transplantation, it was incidentally identified confluent bilateral opacities, more prominent on the left lung in a routine X-ray (Figure 1). The patient had made a chest radiography in 2015 without any changes at that time. The CT scan showed parenchymatous densification areas, partially calcified, in both lungs (Figure 2). The patient also developed secondary hyperparathyroidism refractory to medical therapy but refused surgery. Nevertheless, the lesions had a slow progression until the present time.

Early Posttransplant Isolated v1 Lesion Does Not Need to Be Treated and Does Not Lead to Increased Fibrosis

Acute vascular rejection (AVR) is characterized by intimal arteritis in addition to tubulitis and interstitial inflammation. It is associated with a poorer prognosis compared to tubulointerstitial rejection (AIR) and AVR is associated with a higher rate of graft loss than AIR. The prognosis and treatment of arteritis without tubulitis and interstitial inflammation (isolated v1 lesion) are still controversial. We report a case of a patient who had a biopsy of the kidney allograft for evaluation of slow graft function. The biopsy revealed an isolated v1 lesion. However, we chose not to augment immunosuppression. The patient’s kidney allograft function improved over time with close monitoring. Repeat biopsy a year later showed no evidence of endothelialitis and relatively unchanged fibrosis and no other abnormalities. Although it is suggested that most cases of isolated v1 lesions will respond to corticosteroids or T cell depleting therapies, some cases will improve with conservative management. Further studies are needed to determine which cases could be managed conservatively.