RECURRENT GOODPASTURES-DISEASE

ANTIGLOMERULAR basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease (Goodpasture's dis ease) is the combination of pulmonary hemorrhage, rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, and circulating anti-GBM autoantibodies. A proport ion of patients present with isolated nephritis, or rarely, isolated p ulmonary hemorrhage in the presence of diagnostic autoantibodies. Good pasture's disease is usually a monophasic illness, and the success of current treatment regimens has allowed many patients to survive for pr olonged periods of time. There have been only a few case reports of cl inical or serologic recurrence, and there are no adequate data on the long-term immunology of patients with recurrent disease. We report for the first time a patient with recurrent lung hemorrhage and nephritis in whom serologic data were available throughout a 12-year period. Th is case demonstrates the close association of disease activity with ci rculating anti-GBM antibody levels.