A clinicopathological study on lupus nephritis; experience of 34 cases from Bangladesh

Introduction: The clinicopathological findings of lupus nephritis (LN) are responsible for the ultimate prognosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). But these findings show geographical variations. Data on LN of Bangladeshi patients are extremely rare in the literature and most of them describe mostly clinical features rather than the pathological findings. Objectives: This study was carried out in an effort to find out the clinicopathological characteristics and correlations of LN patients from this region. Patients and Methods: A total of 34 patients were included in the study; all these underwent renal biopsy. Each biopsy was classified according to International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society (ISN/RPS) 2003 LN classification system and compared with the clinical, biochemical and immunological findings. Results: Arthralgia and edema were found to be the most common clinical presentations and both were present in 28 (82.4%) cases. Out of 34 cases, 22 (64.7%) belonged to ISN/RPS class IVG. Among clinical and biochemical findings, arthralgia and serum creatinine showed significant association with the ISN/RPS 2003 classification system of LN. The most common deposited immunoglobulin was IgG. This was present in 29 (85.29%) cases. Conclusion: Observations made from the present study suggest that clinical and laboratory parameters of Bangladeshi patients do not predict the histological findings; though, some of the clinical and biochemical parameters correlated with histological findings in the present study. It was also found that these findings are different from other regional studies on LN.