A 57-year-old man presented with palpitations, shortage of breath on exertion, and rapidly progressive scleroderma. On admission, a computed tomographic scan of his lung showed active interstitial pneumonia. We treated him with d-penicillamine and intravenous pulse methylprednisolone. After this treatment, severe abdominal pain, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and progressive renal involvement appeared. We diagnosed him as having systemic sclerosis (SSc) complicated by thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. At postmortem, thromboses of capillaries, arterioles, and small arteries were found in several organs. As well as the differential diagnosis of SSc with thrombocytopenia, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia (MAHA), and renal involvement, we diagnosed scleroderma renal crisis (SRC), normotensive renal crisis (NRC), and SSc complicated by TTP. Typical SRC and NRC were excluded because his blood pressure was in the normal range without elevation of plasma renin activity or azotemia over his clinical course. Although distinguishing TTP from renal crisis is difficult, an evaluation of ultra-large multimers of von Willebrand factor (UL-vWF) concentration may be helpful in these situations.

A 24-year-old woman suffered from blurred vision and periorbital edema with remittent fever. She was diagnosed as having systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), complicated with myopia and retinopathy and severe chemosis. Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), hemophagocytic syndrome, and liver involvement were also proven. We considered that APS might cause chemosis as a result of thrombosis-induced perfusion failure in the conjunctiva. In such cases, APS should be considered and anticoagulation therapy associated with steroid therapy should be initiated. In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), chemosis, severe hepatitis, and hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) are rare complications. It is well known that many cases of SLE are complicated with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which causes arteriovenous thrombosis. We report a case of SLE with transient myopia and severe chemosis complicated with severe hepatitis and HPS. As this patient had antiphospholipid antibodies, these ocular complications were considered to be related to APS.