Pulmonary nocardiosis with brain abscess in a sensitized kidney transplant recipient with a history of repeated graft loss and HLA-antibody depletion treatment--a case report.

Nocardiosis is an opportunistic infection with unfavourable prognosis and is predominantly seen in immunocompromised patients. We here present a kidney transplant recipient with a history of two early graft losses who subsequently developed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-antibodies and underwent a desensitization treatment with plasmapheresis and monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody application. However, 3 months after a third HLA-identical kidney transplantation he developed Nocardiosis with pulmonary and asymptomatic brain manifestation. The present case report exemplifies this opportunistic infection and gives an overview of the literature.