Acute renal failure and normal blood count: A rare presentation of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Peter H Asdahl; Linda F Warner; Knud Bendix; Henrik Hasle

doi:10.1016/j.lrr.2013.11.002

Acute renal failure and normal blood count: A rare presentation of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leuk Res Rep. 2013 Dec 8;3(1):14-6. doi: 10.1016/j.lrr.2013.11.002. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Peter H Asdahl¹, Linda F Warner², Knud Bendix³, Henrik Hasle¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Aarhus University Hospital, Brendstrupgaardsvej 100, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark.
² Department of Pediatrics, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
³ Department of Pathology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.

Abstract

A 10-year-old boy presented with headache and visual disturbance. During work-up in hospital he developed acute renal failure with a maximum creatinine level of 534 μmol/l. Complete blood count was normal. Kidney and bone marrow biopsy both showed massive infiltration of lymphoblasts of T-cell linage. Renal function normalized rapidly on prednisolone therapy. Kidney involvement in acute lymphoblastic leukemia is uncommon and renal failure due to leukemic infiltration is only sporadically reported. This case emphasizes the importance of kidney and bone marrow biopsy in cases of unexplained acute renal failure even with normal hematology.

Keywords: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Acute renal failure.