A woman developed a rare case of acute kidney renal failure linked to antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) a few days after receiving her first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. According to the National Institutes of Health, AAV is a group of diseases characterized by the destruction and inflammation of small vessels. The condition occurs when neutrophils attack small and medium vessels of the body, which can affect several organs, such as the kidney, stomach, intestine and lungs.
According to a case study published July 18 in Nephron, a previously healthy 47-year-old woman presented to a primary care clinic for bilateral flank pain, generalized weakness and bilateral lower extremity swelling that started three days after her first Pfizer shot.
Researchers from the U.S. and Lebanon said the woman’s vital signs and other parameters were normal and she had no shortness of breath or hemoptysis — “the spitting of blood derived from the lungs or bronchial tubes as a result of pulmonary or bronchial hemorrhage.”