Background: The objective of this study was to assess clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of lupus nephritis adult patients in China.
Methods: Clinicopathological features, treatment strategies, responses and outcome of 681 adult patients with biopsy-proved lupus nephritis were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: Six hundred and eighty-one LN patients were included and followed up for 52.5 ± 14.1 months. Differences in age, disease duration, BP, proteinuria, serum albumin, creatinine, ANCA-positive ratio and SLEDAI scores were noticed between male and female patients, indicating severer disease in male patients. LN IV patients were much severer in systemic damage as well as immunological changes. During follow-up, 354 patients achieved CR, 107 patients achieved PR, 95 patients progressed to ESRD and 36 patients died. Prognosis and treatment response of patients with different histological types differ apparently. Renal outcome of patients with LN II and III was benign, while LN IV, V and VI was poor. Cyclophosphamide was effective in most patients. MMF and CNI could be used as salvage treatment. In multivariate analysis, BP, sCr, hypocomplementemia, severe proliferative lesion (LN IV or VI) and SLEDAI score were recognized as independent indicators of poor renal outcome. Infections, especially pulmonary fungus infection, thrombotic microangiopathy are the most common causes of death in LN patients.
Conclusions: Clinicopathological characteristics, treatment responses and long-term outcomes differ remarkably in LN patients with different gender and pathological subtypes. New indicators of poor renal outcome were identified. Infections and TTP were the most common causes of death in LN patients.