Cryoglobulinaemic vasculitis and glomerulonephritis associated with schistosomiasis: a case study.

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease which is endemic in the subtropics, affecting almost 200 million people worldwide. Schistosomal antigens induce immunological responses which could provoke several forms of glomerular injury known as schistosomal glomerulopathy and that affect 10–15% of infected individuals. Schistosomiasis is classified according to the African Association of Nephrology (AFRAN) into 5 classes (1); Table 1 summarizes these classes, their pathology, clinical course and treatment. There is no role for immune suppression in schistosomal glomerulopathy, which is mostly an untreatable disease that may culminate in end-stage renal disease (1–3). We present here a case of schistosomal glomerulopathy with several peculiar, novel features.