Eosinophilic interstitial nephritis and cardiac insufficiency in Kimura’s disease: a case report

BACKGROUND: Kimura’s disease (KD) is a rare chronic inflammatory disease and the etiology remains uncharacterized. The typical manifestations are painless lymph node or subcutaneous masses. There is currently no report of prominent renal interstitial injury and cardiac insufficiency in KD. CASE PRESENTATION: A 45-year-old man was referred to our hospital with dark urine, subcutaneous masses in forehead and right retroauricular, multiple lymphadenopathy and unexplained cardiac insufficiency. Renal biopsy demonstrated eosinophilic interstitial nephritis. Laboratory tests revealed eosinophilia and a high level of serum IgE. A biopsy of cervical lymph node was performed and KD was diagnosed. Treatment with oral prednisone resulted in a decrease of eosinophil, serum IgE, improvement of cardiac function, and regression of the subcutaneous mass. CONCLUSIONS: We describe an extremely rare KD case presenting with eosinophilic interstitial nephritis, cardiac insufficiency and significant response to prednisone. The clinicians should improve the disease awareness and find optimal treatment.