Gastrointestinal symptoms as first remarkable signs of ANCA-associated granulomatosis with polyangiitis: a case report and reviews

BACKGROUND: Systemic vasculitis associated with antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) have an extremely wide variety of symptoms, therefore the fast and proper diagnosis is difficult to establish even for experienced physicians. Gastrointestinal manifestations in ANCA-associated granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) may be present, however, severe, life-threatening complications (such as perforations) are rare. CASE PRESENTATION: A case of an 18-year-old male patient is presented, where gastrointestinal symptoms (abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea) were the first remarkable signs of GPA. The initial diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease delayed the administration of proper immunosuppressive therapy, which might have contributed to the rare and life-threatening complication of arterial duodenal bleeding with perforation. Our systematic review of the literature found only a few case reports where gastrointestinal symptoms were the first signs of GPA, however, this entity might be more frequent if physicians would think of this possibility more often. CONCLUSIONS: Gastrointestinal bleeding is a rare but potential lethal complication of vasculitis. Consequently, we recommend investigating the patients diagnosed with GPA for gastrointestinal bleeding during the treatment.