Successful treatment of crescentic glomerulonephritis associated with adult-onset Henoch-Schoenlein purpura by double-filtration plasmapheresis.

Henoch-Schoenlein purpura (HSP) crescentic glomerulonephritis with acute renal failure in adults is extremely rare. The condition carries a grave renal outcome if it is not appropriately managed. Oral corticosteroids, intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy and plasmapheresis with concomitant plasma replacement have been used alone or in various combinations to treat patients with HSP nephritis, yet the effects are uncertain. We describe a 33-year-old man with oliguric acute renal failure in the setting of HSP crescentic glomerulonephritis that is refractory to intravenous methylprednisolone pulse therapy (1,000 mg/day for 3 days) with maintained oral prednisolone (1 mg/kg/day) and oral cyclophosphamide (2 mg/kg/day) for 3 weeks, resulting in successful recovery of renal function after 9 sessions of simple double-filtration plasmapheresis treatment without concomitant plasma replacement. There was no recurrence of vasculitic events within 18 months. In this case, we emphasize that simple double-filtration plasmapheresis without concomitant plasma replacement is an effective and safe modality therapy for adult patients with HSP crescentic glomerulonephritis and acute renal failure, especially when conventional therapy has failed.

Quasi-random hypergraphs.

We describe a large equivalence class of properties shared by most hypergraphs, including so-called random hypergraphs. As a result, it follows that many global properties of hypergraphs are actually consequences of simple local conditions.

Quasi-random graphs.

We introduce a large equivalence class of graph properties, all of which are shared by so-called random graphs. Unlike random graphs, however, it is often relatively easy to verify that a particular family of graphs possesses some property in this class.

On irregularities of distribution of real sequences.

A natural measure of the amount of unavoidable clustering that must occur in any bounded infinite sequence of real numbers is studied. We determine the extreme value for this measure and exhibit sequences that achieve this value.