Minimal-Change Disease Secondary toBorrelia burgdorferiInfection

Abstract

Lyme borreliosis is a chronic illness caused by tick-transmitted spirocheteBorrelia burgdorferi. Borreliosis can be extremely threatening if it is not diagnosed and treated in early stages. Kidneys are not typically involved in the disease. However, in infected dogs, Lyme nephritis is present in 5–10% of cases. It is associated with rapidly progressing renal failure. Histopathological examination shows mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis with diffuse tubular necrosis, (Dambach et al. (1997)). In available literature, there were reports of human's glomerulonephritis associated withBorrelia burgdorferiinfection. These cases refer to membranous and mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis (Kirmizis and Chatzidimitriou (2010), Zachäus (2008), and Kirmizis et al. (2004)). In this paper, we present the case of minimal-change disease (MCD) as a result ofBorrelia burgdorferiinfection.