Use of cyclophosphamide and other immunosuppressive drugs in the treatment of patients with lupus nephritis

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic relapsing systemic autoimmune disease; one of the most serious complications is renal involvement, which is occurring in almost 50% of all patients at the beginning of the disease. The aim of the present study was to compare renal function, proteinuria, activity markers and treatment regimen of active and inactive SLE patients with renal involvement. We analyzed the correlation of serum blood urea nitrogen, creatinine level, glomerular filtration rate, urine total protein/serum creatinine (uTP/creat), CRP to classic activity markers of SLE (serum complement 3, -4 level, anti-dsDNA antibody). Moreover we analyzed the treatment modalities of patients with lupus nephritis (LN). Data of 418 SLE patients were analyzed, out of these patients 128 had biopsy proven lupus nephritis or had more than 3 + proteinuria by urine dipstick analysis (30% of all cases). Results: Data of 128 patients with lupus nephritis were analyzed (mean age 32.18 ± 11.48 year, time between the diagnosis of SLE and LN was 2.78 ± 4.59 year). 48% of patients had diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis, 75% of them received cyclic cyclophosphamide treatment. UTp (total protein)/creatinine level was significantly higher in active LN group (p = 0.03), and correlated to erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p = 0.002, R = 0.52). Mean anti-dsDNA level of patients with active LN was significantly higher (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Patients with active lupus nephritis are at higher risk of developing renal failure, activity markers and urine protein are elevated in these patients as compared to inactive patients, early aggressive immunosuppressive treatment needs to be started to prevent end-stage renal failure.