ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Treatment of patients with lupus nephritis (LN) requires judicious use of immunosuppression. Novel biomarkers may be useful for monitoring disease activity and treatment response. We assessed the utility of urinary monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (uMCP-1) and urinary tumour necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (uTWEAK) for disease activity and treatment response monitoring in South Africans with LN. METHODS: We recruited consenting patients with active LN confirmed on kidney biopsy. Urinary levels of MCP-1 and TWEAK were assayed at baseline and after completion of induction therapy using ELISA methods. We also collected relevant demographic, clinical and biochemical data for patients included in this study. RESULTS: The mean age of patients in this study was 29.8 ± 10.7 years, 60% were patients of mixed ancestry, 70% had proliferative LN and mean spot urine proteinuria at baseline was 0.37 (0.18-0.59) g/mmolCr. At completion of induction therapy, the level of uMCP-1 had reduced to 314.5 (IQR: 197.0-622) pg/mgCr from a baseline of 1092.7 (IQR 578.6-1848) pg/mgCr (P = 0.06) while uTWEAK had reduced to 36.0 (IQR 17.0-88.0) pg/mgCr from 159.0 (IQR: 88.5-295.5) pg/mgCr (P = 0.03). For patients reaching early complete or partial remission (n = 17), both biomarkers had significantly declined in their urine: uMCP-1 (P = 0.018) and uTWEAK (P = 0.015). There was no reduction of both biomarkers in patients not achieving remission and no association between uMCP-1 or uTWEAK with renal histological features. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that uMCP-1 and uTWEAK are elevated in patients with active LN, correlated with the remission status (response to treatment) at the end of induction therapy and can, therefore, be useful for monitoring disease activity and treatment response.
Subject(s)
Chemokine CCL2/urine , Cytokine TWEAK/urine , Lupus Nephritis/urine , Adult , Biomarkers/urine , Female , Humans , Immunosuppression Therapy , Lupus Nephritis/therapy , Male , Prospective Studies , South Africa , Treatment Outcome , Young AdultABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of peritonitis and mortality in patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) treated with chronic peritoneal dialysis (PD) in Africa. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING: Africa. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with ESKD in Africa. INTERVENTIONS: PD in its varied forms. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: PD-related peritonitis rate (primary outcome), time-to-discontinuation of PD, mortality. DATA SOURCES: Four databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Africa Journal Online were systematically searched from 1 January 1980 to 31 December 2019. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Studies conducted in Africa reporting peritonitis rate and mortality in patients treated with PD. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: Two reviewers extracted and synthesised the data using Microsoft Excel. The quality of included data was also assessed. RESULTS: We included 17 studies from seven African countries representing 1894 patients treated with PD. The overall median age was 41.4 years (IQR: 38.2-44.7) with a median time on PD of 18.0 months (17.0-22.6). An overall median peritonitis rate of 0.75 (0.56-2.20) episodes per patient-year (PPY) was observed and had declined with time; peritonitis rate was higher in paediatric studies than adult studies (1.78 (1.26-2.25) vs 0.63 (0.55-1.87) episodes PPY). The overall median proportion of deaths was 21.1% (16.2-25.8). Culture negative peritonitis was common in paediatric studies and studies that reported combined outcomes of continuous ambulatory PD and automated PD. Both 1-year and 2-year technique survival were low in all studies (83.6% and 53.0%, respectively) and were responsible for a high proportion of modality switch. CONCLUSIONS: Our study identifies that there is still high but declining peritonitis rates as well as low technique and patient survival in PD studies conducted in Africa. Sustained efforts should continue to mitigate factors associated with peritonitis in patients with ESKD treated with PD in Africa. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017072966.
