Clinicopathological study of originally non-lupus "full-house" nephropathy.
BACKGROUND
Glomerular "full-house" immunofluorescence staining commonly indicates lupus nephritis. However, some non-lupus nephropathy also can present with a "full-house" immunofluorescence pattern mimicking lupus nephritis. The goal of this study is to define the clinicopathological spectrum of originally non-lupus "full-house" nephropathy.


METHODS
Records of 24 patients with "full-house" nephropathy in the absence of clinical or serological evidence of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) at the time of renal biopsy were abstracted for demographics, clinical presentation, laboratory data, renal biopsy findings, and clinical follow-up.


RESULTS
The clinicopathological diagnoses included membranous glomerulonephritis (GN) (46%), IgA nephropathy (21%), membranoproliferative GN (12.5%), postinfectious GN (12.5%), C1q nephropathy (4%), and unclassified mesangial GN (4%). No one had endothelial tubuloreticular inclusions. One patient originally diagnosed as IgA nephropathy developed anti-DNA antibody and another one patient with membranous GN developed hypocomplementemia 8 months and 10 months after renal biopsy, respectively. The two patients also developed clinical symptoms of lupus subsequently.


CONCLUSIONS
There was a broad spectrum of glomerular histological findings in non-lupus "full-house" nephropathy. The possibility of "full-house" nephropathy preceding the emergence of overt systemic lupus erythematosus remained to be elucidated.
Wen
Yao-Ko
YK
Division of Nephrology, Changhua Christian Medical Center, Changhua, Taiwan. wensnake1100@yahoo.com.tw
Chen
Mei-Ling
ML
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005921:Glomerulonephritis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology*; D008181:Lupus Nephritis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult