Varicella infection in a renal transplant recipient associated with abdominal pain, hepatitis, and glomerulonephritis

A 36-year-old renal transplant patient developed 9 years after a successful transplantation a fatal secondary varicella infection. The disseminated va ricella infection was associated with hepatitis with liver necrosis, dissem inated intravascular coagulation and fibrinolysis and glomerulonephritis. T o our knowledge this is the first description of glomerulonephritis associa ted with varicella infection in a renal transplanted patient. The autopsy s howed morphologically a mesangial glomerulonephritis with minor proliferati ve activity and extensive deposits by elcetronmicroscopy, mainly in the mes angium. The ongoing immunosuppression may have modified the mesangial cell response to the deposition of immune complexes.