Unilateral renal angiodysplasia in a girl with hypertension

Abstract

We report a case of very unusual renal vascular anomaly: angiodysplasia. The patient suffered from acute pyelonephritis immediately after birth. Renal ultrasonography, performed at age 1 day, revealed an enlarged left kidney with heterogeneously increased echogenicity, which involuted rapidly in 3 months. At age 10 years, she presented with severe hypertension during a course of acute pyelonephritis. Peripheral plasma renin activity was high. Computed tomographic angiogram revealed a very small but functioning left kidney. A single, narrow, left renal artery did not have focal stenosis. Pathology examination revealed dysplastic arterioles at the subcapsular area. After left nephrectomy, the blood pressure and the plasma renin activity were normalized. In conclusion, this is an unusual case of renal angiodysplasia, which induced renin-dependent hypertension.