Glomerular Disease in Two Patients With Urticaria-Cutaneous Vasculitis and Hypocomplementemia

We assessed the clinical, serologic, and renal abnormalities of two patients with the syndrome of hypocomplementemia, vasculitis, and urticaria. Both patients presented with recurrent urticaria and were found subsequently to have glomerulonephritis. Both manifested depletion of the early complement (C) components, and their C1 inhibitor levels were normal. Circulating immune complexes were detected by two of three assays in both patients. One patient had a high titer of Sm antibodies. The detectable immune complexes were of high molecular weight, and were more suggestive of classical lupus erythematosus than the low molecular weight (7S) C1q precipitins which characterize some cases of hypocomplementemia-vasculitis-urticaria syndrome. Biopsy of the skin lesions in both patients revealed leukocytoclastic vasculitis with immunoglobulin and C deposits at the dermal-epidermal junction. Renal biopsy specimens showed segmental or diffuse proliferative mesangial glomerulonephritis. The results suggest that patients with this syndrome do not conform to a discrete entity but rather exhibit a spectrum of diseases ranging from systemic lupus erythematosus to the syndrome of urticaria, hypocomplementemia, and low molecular weight C1q precipitins.