Lupus
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A retrospective analysis of the long-term outcome of patients with membranous lupus nephropathy (MLN) was conducted. One hundred Chinese patients, 90 females and 10 males with a mean age of 32+/-9 years, with systemic lupus erythematosus and biopsy-proven MLN (ISN/RPS2003 classification criteria) were enrolled in this study. The patient and renal survivals were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the risk factors associated with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) were assessed by the Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. ⋯ Twenty-one patients underwent a repeat biopsy after 33months' (median time) follow-up, eight (38.1%) of these (class V superimposed class IV in 5, class V superimposed class III in 2 and class VI in 1) had transformed and three (37.5%) of them progressed to ESRF. Complications included infection (13%), thrombosis (3%), avascular necrosis (3%), diabetes mellitus (4%) and skin cancer (1%). The rate of patient and renal survival was high in this group of patients with MLN.