Renal biopsy indications may need to change for lupus patients

Patients with active lupus who are clinically asymptomatic and have positive anti-dsDNA antibodies may have severe renal disease requiring immunosuppressive treatment, according to a study.

In this study, the biopsies of 258 patients with lupus were retrospectively reviewed and 54 patients were found to have no clinical renal findings but active disease and positive anti-dsDNA antibodies and/or hypocomplementemia.

Of the 54 patients found to have no clinical renal findings, 13 (24%) had renal involvement requiring immunosuppressant therapy. Patients who required immunosuppressive therapy had serositis and hematologic involvement significantly more often than patients who did not require immunosuppressive therapy (42.9% vs 10.0%; P = 0.003 and 64.3% vs 37.5; P = 0.039).

Reference
Yargucu Zihni F, Karabulut G, Oksel F. Retrospective review of the clinical and laboratory data in silent lupus nephritis. Int Urol Nephrol. 2021;doi: 10.1007/s11255-021-03066-4. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34853989.