ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine the frequency of dyslipidemia in patients with lupus nephritis and its association with the degree of proteinuria
Methods: This cross-sectional analytic study included 65 patients who fulfilled the ACR [American College of Rheumatology] criteria for SLE and had renal involvement, presenting to the Division of Rheumatology, Fatima Memorial Hospital [FMH], and Lahore from 21[st] Sep 2016 to 20[th] Dec 2016. After 12 hours overnight fast their blood samples were assessed for total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides [TG], high density lipoprotein [HDL] and low density lipoprotein [LDL]. Patient demographic variables [age, sex] and disease characteristics [disease duration, degree of proteinuria, steroid dose] were noted. Patients were categorized into two groups on the basis of degree of proteinuria: having proteinuria >1gm or
Results: Most common lipid abnormality found in our study was hypertriglyceridemia [58.5%]. Total Cholesterol and LDL-C was high in 55.4% and 30.8% subjects respectively. Low HDL was found in 21.5% subjects. Increased frequency of dyslipidemia was noticed in those subjects who had proteinuria >1gm [P value < 0.05]
Conclusion: Dyslipidemia was observed in a high frequency in patients with lupus nephritis and was strongly associated with their degree of proteinuria