Bilateral Posterior Scleritis Presenting as the First Manifestation of Immunoglobulin A Nephropathy: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Purpose: We describe a case of posterior scleritis presenting as the first manifestation in a Chinese patient with immunoglobin A nephropathy (IgAN).

Methods: Retrospective review of our patient and review of the published case reports from PubMed search.

Results: A 43-year-old woman developed bilateral posterior scleritis. Microscopic hematuria and proteinuria was found by urinalysis, and a kidney biopsy revealed IgAN. The posterior scleritis was resolved with oral prednisolone. For the review, 12 cases of episcleritis (70.6%), 4 cases of scleritis (23.5%), and 1 case of posterior scleritis (5.9%) associated with IgAN were analyzed. Five patients (29.4%) had scleritis or episcleritis as the first presenting manifestation.

Conclusions: Posterior scleritis may be the first manifestation of IgAN in a patient. For any adult patient with scleral/episcleral inflammation, urinalysis should be done to rule out IgAN.

• Episcleritis
• immunoglobin A nephropathy (IgAN)
• posterior scleritis
• scleritis
• steroids

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.