Evaluation of Treatment Response in Lupus Nephritis

• Published in: Medicina modernă (Bucharest, Romania) Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 389 - 395
• Main Authors: BOBIRCA, Anca, BOBIRCA, Florin, FLORESCU, Anca, IORGUS, Carmen, TINCA, Radu, MUSETESCU, Anca, BOJINCA, Mihai, ANCUTA, Ioan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Media Med Publicis 30.12.2021
• Subjects: lupus nephritis; response relapse; treatment
• ISSN: 1223-0472; 2360-2473
• DOI: 10.31689/rmm.2021.28.4.389

Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment reflected by the rate of response to therapy at 6 months and 12 months of follow-up respectively. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical, laboratory data, treatment regimens, the type of response and relapse rate of 51 patients diagnosed with LN between January 2017 and February 2020. Results:47.06% of the patients underwent renal biopsy, classes III and IV being the most common lupus nephritis types (totaling 35.3% of biopsied patients). All induction therapy choices analyzed in the study- CYC, Glucocorticoids (GCs) and MMF- proved effective at reducing the proteinuria of the patients (p=0.001, p=0.012 and p=0,019 respectively. The 12 months evaluation demonstrated an ascending trend of the complete response, starting from 27.45% at 6 months and almost doubling at 1 year (56.86%). Almost half of patients (49.02%) did not relapse, while most of them (27.45%) had only 1 relapse. Analyzing the risk of relapse for each induction drug used, CYC had the highest rate of recurrence (62.07%). The use of MMF as a maintenance drug associated the lowest degree of recurrence. Conclusions: Both CYC and MMF as induction therapy are significantly effective in reducing proteinuria. The complete response was more frequently identified as an endpoint at 12 months of follow-up.