For those of us managing patients with active lupus nephritis, the promise of a safe new therapy five years ago – anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy against B cells- seemed like a breath of fresh air. A number of…
Drug-induced autoimmune diseases of the kidney include SLE-like disease and drug-induced vasculitis (DIV). As many as 10% of all diagnosed Lupus cases in the US may be drug-induced Lupus (DIL). These syndromes typically develop after drug treatment for…
Everyone has a certain diagnosis in Nephrology that is just hard to understand. For me, it has been the diagnosis of MPGN (membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis). After extensive reading, I have developed a couple of pearls and interesting points that…
I’m sure many of you have a pet dog. Well, as Rover quietly licks himself in the corner, few would believe that he may hold the key to unlocking the genetic secrets of human disease, as suggested by…
Linking up nicely with Nate’s rituximab post from this Tuesday, I wanted to mention a patient with lupus nephritis whom I saw in clinic this week. She had had horrendous renal disease, as seen on the three kidney…
Quick review of the autoantibodies that may be useful in the diagnosis and management of patients with lupus-related kidney disease: anti-nuclear antibody (ANA): as well as know from our internal medicine days: very sensitive, but not very specific….
Interesting case for the weekend: young woman with known lupus, baseline normal kidney function; admitted initially with headaches and “feeling more lupusy than usual”, found to have a creatinine of 2.5 on admission with some dysmorphic RBCs on…
The World Health Organization (WHO) of lupus nephritis has provided a useful and simple framework for understanding this complex disease. In 2003, a committe of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) & Renal Pathologic Society (RPS) instituted some…
Neonatal lupus occurs when autoantibodies are transmitted from the mother to the fetus; it usually manifests as a transient and mild lupoid rash which lasts 3-6 months, but can also result in more serious manifestations such as congenital…
It is somewhat controversial whether or not pregnant women with lupus experience flares more frequently than their non-pregnant counterparts. Regardless, however, the issue of a lupus flare in a pregnant patient is not uncommon, especially considering that the…
