Journal of Nephropathology (Jul 2014)

Clinicopathological correlations in lupus nephritis; a single center experience

  • Hamid Nasri,
  • Ali Ahmadi,
  • Azar Baradaran,
  • Ali Momeni,
  • Parto Nasri,
  • Saeed Mardani,
  • Mahmood Rafieian-kopaei,
  • Muhammed Mubarak

DOI
https://doi.org/10.12860/jnp.2014.22
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3, no. 3
pp. 115 – 120

Abstract

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Background: Renal biopsies play an important role in the diagnosis, management and prognosis of patients with lupus nephritis (LN). Objectives: To determine the correlation between the pathological features of LN and the demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters. Patients and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted from 2008 to 2014 on all consecutive cases of biopsy-proven LN at a nephropathology laboratory in Iran. The demographic, clinical and laboratory data were obtained from patients’ files and the biopsy findings from the original biopsy request forms. Results: Of the 84 patients enrolled, 69 (82.2%) were females and 15 (17.8%) males. The mean age was 32.7±12 years. The mean serum creatinine was 1.5±0.94 mg/dl and the mean 24-h proteinuria, 1.6±1.9 grams. The majority of cases belonged to classes III and IV. The extracapillary proliferation was found in 42.86% of biopsies and endocapillary proliferation in 66.67% of biopsies. Patients of class IV-LN had a higher mean serum value of creatinine in comparison to class III-LN (2.19±1.09 versus 1.2±0.56 mg/dl; p= 0.0001). There was no significant difference of 24-h proteinuria between the two classes (p= 0.882). A significant association of serum creatinine with 24-h proteinuria (p= 0.041) was seen. Serum creatinine had significant positive correlation with activity percent (p< 0.001), and chronicity percent (p= 0.006), and also with proportion of glomeruli with crescents (p < 0.001). While there was a significant relationship of proteinuria with chronicity percent (p= 0.001), this association for activity percent was not significant (p= 0.094). Furthermore, the association of proteinuria with totally sclerotic glomeruli and proportion of crescents was not statistically significant (p= 0.186 and p= 0.0145 respectively). Conclusions: In conclusion, the results from our study on biopsy-proven cases of LN largely concur with the previously reported studies from Iran and other parts of the world.

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