RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Lupus nephritis is a common and serious damage in systemic lupus erythematosus. The aim of our study is to define the frequency and to identify the predictors of lupus nephritis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. METHODS: multicenter retrospective study on all systemic lupus erythematosus patients followed between 2005 and 2012. We analyzed the epidemiological, clinical and biological presentation at admission and during follow-up. We have identified two groups of patients: group 1 involving systemic lupus erythematosus without renal disease, group 2 : patient with lupus nephritis. RESULTS: We collected 105 patients including 100 women, 41 (39%) with lupus nephritis occurred after a period of 30±10 months of development of lupus. 4 patients (3%) were initially presented with acute renal failure requiring hemodialysis. The pathological findings of renal biopsy is respectively: class IV, III and II in 19 patients (63.3%), 4 patients (13.3%), and 4 patients (13.3%). Our patients with lupus nephritis received various treatment regimens: 38 patients (92.7%) received corticosteroids and combined with cyclophosphamide in 33 (80.5%) cases. Only young age, anemia and antinuclear antibodies were correlated with the risk of occurrence of renal damage. Predictors of the severity of lupus nephritis were the short time of occurrence of renal and renal failure. CONCLUSION: Lupus nephritis in our series is characterized by a severity of the clinical and biological explained by the frequency of proliferative forms, hence the necessity for early and adequate management.
