Acute kidney injury in an HIV patient with plasmablastic lymphoma – A double-edged sword

Abstract

HIV patients frequently develop acute kidney injury (AKI) because of sepsis and diarrhoeal disease. Here, we report a case of an HIV-positive man with partially treated sinonasal plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) and unexplained AKI. A kidney biopsy revealed two pathological processes. Contribution: While urinary tract obstruction is the most common mechanism by which PBL causes AKI, maintaining a high level of suspicion for multiple pathological processes in cases involving light chain producing PBL.

Keywords

• acute kidney injury
• light chains
• cast nephropathy
• hiv
• tumour infiltration