The Patient with Lupus Nephritis: Comprehensive Assessment and Potential Risks

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a potentially fatal, chronic, multisystem autoimmune condition. Kidney damage plays a special role in the course and prognosis of SLE, being associated with the greatest number of complications and high mortality. The main type of renal damage in lupus is the development of secondary glomerulonephritis - lupus nephritis. Therefore, it’s of great importance to establish so-called “risk factors” that would make it possible to predict the development of LN in patients with SLE, its exacerbations, features of the course and possible outcomes. It is noteworthy that at the onset of the disease, kidney damage was noted in almost half of the patients with SLE (48.2%), and in many cases, the first clinical and laboratory manifestations of LN were only changes in urine tests.