In crime programmes when someone lands on the ground from a great height the question asked is “were they pushed or was it a self inflicted fall?” Effect is the same but the cause is different.
aHUS is so diverse now by that definition that it can be brought on by something else or just be self inflicted. COVID , Lupus, Alport’s Syndrome patients can get aHUS in the wider definition
Conditions can trigger it or be triggered by it. Which comes first the chicken or the egg?
Take this example of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and aHUS that occurred in three case studies reported in this article HERE.
Each patient presented with clinical signs of aHUS but we’re not diagnosed as such. Anything but was initially suspected … DIC secondary to viral infections , the ubiquitous TTP or Relapsing TTP diagnosis experience by patients found much later to have aHUS.
What was also noticed was that in one patient IBD had already been discovered and in the other two patients Crohn’s Disease , an inflammatory condition developed after they had experienced aHUS.
Two sides become one
The gut is set up in a way to protect the self from any infectious stuff that is going through it. Such infectious stuff can trigger aHUS and yet the self can also attack the gut.
It is thought that Complement over activation in aHUS might inflame the lining of the gut creating an opportunity for inflammatory bowel diseases
When their aHUS is treated with a complement inhibitor patient’s IBD condition improved too with just the same IBD treatment both before and after complement inhibition.
Cause or effect. Go figure.
Article No. 594
