Retrospective assessment of patients diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus with renal involvement

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, autoimmune disease with severe renal involvement. Renal involvement is observed in approximately half of the patients. Although significant developments have been made in the treatment in recent years, approximately 10-20% of patients develop end-stage renal disease. Our study's objectives were to assess the treatment regimens of lupus nephritis patients, to examine remission rates and the factors associated with remission, and to compare the results with existing literature. Our study included 42 patients diagnosed with lupus nephritis after a kidney biopsy in the nephrology department of Bursa Uludag University Medical Faculty Hospital between 2009 and 2021. Demographic characteristics of the patients, findings at the time of diagnosis, biopsy pathology results, and remission rates at the 6th and 12th months were retrospectively analyzed. 40% of the patients were in complete remission at the end of the first year, compared to 37.8% at the end of the sixth month. At 6 and 12 months, patients were divided into two groups: those who had achieved complete remission and those who had not. There was a significant difference between the groups at the sixth-month evaluation regarding the amount of proteinuria and haemoglobin levels at the time of diagnosis (p=0.022, p=0.006, respectively). While the median proteinuria in the group that did not achieve complete remission was 2945 mg/day, the median proteinuria in the group that achieved complete remission was 1835 mg/day. The non-remission group had significantly higher haemoglobin levels. Age at lupus diagnosis was greater in the group who achieved complete remission at 12 months (p=0.014). While the mean age at diagnosis of lupus was 35.8±2.8 in the group in complete remission, it was 27.1±1.9 in the group that did not achieve complete remission. In conclusion, lupus nephritis is a serious and common organ involvement of SLE. Despite different treatments, the complete remission rate at one year is around 50%. Determining the factors associated with remission is important to predict the prognosis. Our study found a correlation between the proteinuria level at the time of diagnosis, the haemoglobin level, and the age at diagnosis of lupus and remission