Early achievement of deep remission predicts low incidence of renal flare in lupus nephritis class III or IV

Excerpt

Recommendations for lupus nephritis (LN) management specify that the therapeutic target should be a complete renal response (CR) [1], defined as a urine protein:Cr ratio (UPCR) of 0.5 g/gCr (50 mg/mmol) and normal or near-normal renal function. Earlier studies suggested that patients who achieved CR experienced fewer renal flares than those who achieved partial remission, defined as a 50% reduction of proteinuria [2]. Among patients who achieved CR (less than 0.50 g/gCr of UPCR), however, the renal outcome of those who achieved a value below the normal UPCR limit of 0.15 g/gCr was unclear. We recently reported that an early renal response may predict a good renal or systemic outcome [3, 4]. In this study, we investigated whether it is beneficial to achieve deep remission early by evaluating flare rate, Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (SDI), cumulative glucocorticoid dose, and eGFR level. …