title: Silent renal involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.
abstract: 20 patients with active SLE without clinical evidence of renal involvement underwent percutaneous renal biopsy. 12 had varying proliferative changes on light microscopy. Of 19 ultrastructural examinations performed only 3 had no electron-dense deposits. Serum C3 and C4 levels were 63 +/- 8 and 8 +/- 2 mg% in patients with subendothelial deposits, compared to 142 +/- 27 and 27 +/- 6 mg%, respectively, in patients without deposits  (p less than 0.01). All patients with diffuse proliferative changes had subendothelial deposits; however, one with normal light microscopy and another with focal proliferation also had them. It is concluded that no variant of lupus nephropathy can be excluded on clinical grounds alone.
mesh_terms: D001806:Blood Urea Nitrogen; D003176:Complement C3; D003181:Complement C4; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D007678:Kidney Glomerulus / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000150:complications* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D003176:Complement C3; D003181:Complement C4; D003404:Creatinine