Surgical pathology of the lung in anti-basement membrane antibody-associated Goodpasture's syndrome

Abstract

We report the findings of lung biopsies from five patients with anti-basement membrane antibody-associated Goodpasture's syndrome (ABMA-GS). In four patients, pulmonary capillaritis with hemorrhage was found on lung biopsy, confirming that pulmonary capillaritis can be found in ABMA-GS. Although alveolar hemorrhage was the dominant pathologic finding in four of our five patients, all five patients had evidence of injury at the level of the alveolar wall, manifested by hyaline membranes and widening of alveolar walls by edematous connective tissue. In one of our patients, alveolar hemorrhage was only focal, and diffuse alveolar damage was the dominant pathologic finding. This pattern of lung disease has not been previously described in ABMA-GS.