Abstract:

ABSTRACT  Objective: To investigate the clinical and epidemiologic features of infection in patients with lupus nephritis (LN). Methodology: Six hundred and ninety-nine LN patients were enrolled in this study. They were 607 female，92 male with a mean age  of 28.4±11.1 years old. All of them were performed renal biopsy, and their histological patterns were Class Ⅱ、Ⅲ、Ⅳ、Ⅴ、Ⅳ+Ⅴ or Ⅴ+Ⅲ type. The infection incidence，infectious phase, sites and infective pathogens in different phases were analyzed retrospectively. Results:（1）There were 191 cases 27.3％）of 699 LN patients with infection complication, the total duration of follow-up was 46 months. 191 patients had 225 infection episodes，30 cases with two episodes of infection, and 2 cases with three episodes of infection.（2）Of 225 infection episodes , 124（55.1％）episodes occurred in the phase of induction therapy after a follow-up period of (2.6±1.6) months. 101（44.9％）episodes happened in the phase of maintenance therapy , and time of occurrence were（24.3±16.6）months. （3）The most common affected sites were skin、lung and urinary tract system（89.3％）. The most common pathogens were bacteria (54.2％), followed by virus (39.6％) and deep fungus (4％), respectively.（4）In the phase of induction therapy, the most common affected sites were skin（50.8％), lung（32.3％) and urinary tract system（11.3％), respectively. However, in the maintenance phase, the infection sites were urinary system（35.6％)、skin（30.7％) and lung（16.8％), respectively. （5）The induction and maintenance phase, the most pathogens were bacteria（42.7％ vs  68.3％, P<0.01）、virus（50.8％ vs 25.7％, P<0.01)、fungi（6.5％ vs 1％, P<0.01).  Conclusions: The incidence of infection in patients with LN was 27.3％, and usually occurred within the 3 months. There were significant differences in affected sites and pathogens during the phase of induction and maintenance therapy.

Key words: Lupus nephritis, , Infections, , Clinical feature