Glomerulopathy due to chronic infection of Propionibacterium acnes in a patient with Felty's syndrome.

Felty's syndrome, first reported by Felty in 1924 [1], is well known as a trio of rheumatoid arthritis, splenomegaly, and neutropenia, which occurs in 1-5% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The nephropathy associated with Felty's syndrome is very rare; we found only one previous case in the literature [2]. Although the pathogenesis of Felty's syndrome is still unclear, the glomerular lesion of our patient was similar to that of systemic infection. Extensive bacterial culture revealed the presence of Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) in blood and bone marrow fluid at several different occasions. In this report, we discuss the relationship between P. acnes infection and nephropathy with a review of the literature.