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Lupus Nephritis

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Fundamentals of Renal Pathology

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Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease of unknown cause that can occur at almost any age, although it affects mostly women in their 20s. The annual incidence of SLE is 50–70 people per million of the population, and prevalence is 500 per million [1]. The incidence of new cases and the survival of patients with SLE are both increasing [2]. The disease is characterized by a large variety of organ disorders involving many different immune mechanisms. The spectrum of kidney lesions predominantly involves the glomerulus and includes minimal mesangial alterations to florid proliferative lesions with necrosis and crescents but also extends to nonimmune complex lesions such as thrombotic microangiopathy (see Chap. 11) and direct podocyte injury. Correspondingly, clinical manifestations and course are equally diverse. Kidney disease develops in more than half of lupus patients and represents the first clinical manifestation of SLE in 15–20 % [3, 4]. Moreover, renal alterations are found in almost 90 % of lupus patients at autopsy. The lowest 5-year survival has been reported for patients with central nervous system and renal involvement [1].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    Agnes B. Fogo

  2. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Arthur H. Cohen

  3. Department of Pathology Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Robert B. Colvin

  4. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

    J. Charles Jennette

  5. Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Charles E. Alpers

Authors
  1. Agnes B. Fogo
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  2. Arthur H. Cohen
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  3. Robert B. Colvin
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  4. J. Charles Jennette
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  5. Charles E. Alpers
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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Fogo, A.B., Cohen, A.H., Colvin, R.B., Jennette, J.C., Alpers, C.E. (2014). Lupus Nephritis. In: Fundamentals of Renal Pathology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39080-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39080-7_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39079-1

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