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Uveitis initiating an autoimmune reaction resulting in Goodpasture’s syndrome in a Chinese man

¹ Department of Ophthalmology, GKT, St Thomas’s Hospital, London, UK
² Department of Histopathology, GKT, St Thomas’s Hospital, London, UK
³ Renal Unit, GKT, Guy’s Hospital, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Miss Melanie Chak, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Department of Ophthalmology, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guildford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK

Accepted 17 April 2002

Keywords: uveitis; autoimmune reaction; Goodpasture’s syndrome; Chinese race

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Goodpasture’s syndrome is an autoimmune disease caused by IgG directed against the alpha-3 chain of type IV collagen found in basement membrane. It causes pulmonary haemorrhage and renal failure. The antibody has been demonstrated in the basement membranes in the eye. However, ophthalmological complications in Goodpasture’s syndrome are rare. As with other autoimmune diseases, Goodpasture’s syndrome patients have a strong susceptibility based on a genetic background.¹ Much evidence supports the concept that cross reactivity with exogenous epitopes or insult to the basement membrane can initiate the process of autoimmunity resulting in Goodpasture’s syndrome.¹ We present a case of a Chinese man in whom we believe uveitis precipitated the autoimmune reaction causing Goodpasture’s syndrome

Case report
A 77 year old Chinese man from Hong Kong presented to the eye casualty department with a 1 month history of a black patch in the centre of his visual field in the left eye. Before this . . . [Full text of this article]