Levamisole-Adulterated Cocaine Nephrotoxicity:  Ultrastructural Features.

Abstract

The issue of levamisole-adulterated cocaine is emerging as a rapidly growing public health concern due to an increasing number of reports describing its role in cutaneous vasculitis and agranulocytosis. Of note, levamisole is recognized as a contaminant in 69% of the cocaine used within the United States. We describe a patient who was a chronic cocaine user and developed systemic vasculitis characterized by polyarthralgia, bullous skin lesions, agranulocytosis, and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-positive rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. The skin biopsy specimen demonstrated leukocytoclastic vasculitis. The renal biopsy specimen revealed pauci-immune necrotizing and crescentic glomerulonephritis and unusual deposits with medium electron density composed of granules, microspherules, and rare single fibrils on electron microscopy. The electron microscopic features of levamisole-adulterated cocaine toxicity are novel findings that are presented for the first time, to our knowledge, in this report.