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During the congress, E-Posters will be accessible to all participants on the congress website 24/7, as well as in the E-poster stations in the congress center.
Preparing your E-Poster
Please review the E-Poster format requirements carefully when preparing your E-Poster. Should your E-Poster not meet the mentioned requirements, it may not be displayed as described above.
E-Poster Submission Deadline
Please prepare and upload your E-Poster no later than March 14, 2026 11.59PM CET. After this date, you will no longer be able to prepare and upload your E-poster and it will not be displayed and accessible on the congress website.
Please follow the instructions below to input your abstract title.
Abstract titles should be brief and reflect the content of the abstract.
Lupus nephritis may be observed in 20-60% of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Signs of lupus nephritis (LN) in urinalysis are red and white blood cell casts with proteinuria. For patients who have higher than 500 mg/day proteinuria, a kidney biopsy helps for definitive diagnosis. Biopsy is also important for LN classification and for defining activity and chronicity indices. These information guide the immuno-suppresive treatment.
The follow-up of LN is generally challenging. The disease may be refractory to treatment or may have relapses. As LN may further be complicated by chronic kidney disease (CKD), clinicians can not always be confident to intensify the immuno-suppresion. Repeat kidney biopsy may guide the decision-making process. This study aims to evaluate the role of repeat kidney biopsies in lupus nephritis patients. Changes in LN classes as well as activity and chronic indices were compared.
LN patients who have at least 2 kidney biopsies were involved in the study. Demographic characteristics of the patients, their renal functions and proteinuria levels were evaluated. Kidney biopsies were read by experienced pathologists and classified according to the ISN/RPS scheme. Change in LN classes as well as activity and chronicity indices were comparatively analyzed.
The study involved a total of 36 LN patients with repeat kidney biopsies. They were 42,0 ± 10,9 years old and 88,8% of the patients were female (n=32). Elapsed time between two biopsies was 109,2 ± 61,8 months. Initial average creatinine level was 0,85 ± 0,35 mg/dL. The most important indication for a repeat biopsy was increase in proteinuria. Initial average proteinuria level was 2647 ± 2544 mg/day. This increased to 3849 ± 2848 mg/day just before the repeat biopsies. Most frequently observed LN class was IV, both in the initial and repeat biopsies. 71,4% of the class II LN cases progressed to more severe classes (III, IV or V). On the other side, 75% of the class IV and 83,3% of the class V cases persisted in the same class. While there were no changes in activity indexes, chronicity indexes were found as increased at 2nd biopsies. Independent of the lupus nephritis classification, proteinuria decreased significantly (2350 ± 1814 mg/day, p=0,02) with modification of treatments after second biopsies.
Repeat biopsies may have some utility to guide treatment modifications and we observed a decreasing trend in proteinuria after second biopsies. Class III/IV LN had a low tendency to switch to low risk classes. Intensifying immunosuppression when their proteinuria increase may be a reasonable option. However, class II LN may switch to higher risk classes and a repeat biopsy will be helpful to reveal the new LN class of these patients.
