Childhood lupus nephritis in a developing country-24 years' single-center experience from North India

Objective Data on outcome of childhood lupus nephritis from developing countries are sparse. This study looks at outcome in children with lupus nephritis from a federal government-funded teaching hospital in North India. Methods This study included children less than 14 years of age with lupus nephritis who presented to a single center during a period of 24 years (1991 to 2013). Data on clinical characteristics and outcome were extracted from medical records. The primary outcome was actuarial survival (time-to-death) and secondary outcome was actuarial renal survival using Kaplan-Meier analysis. A worst-case scenario that assumed children who were lost to follow-up as having either died or gone into end-stage renal disease was also calculated. Log-rank test and Cox-regression were used to assess difference in survival by histological class and predictors of poor outcome, respectively. Results This study included 72 children, with a female:male ratio of 3:1, mean (SD) age at onset of lupus 9.3 (+/- 2.4) years and mean (+/- SD) time from onset-to-nephritis being 9.4 (+/- 12.6) months. Renal biopsy was conducted in 53 children. The most common histological class was class IV (35 children). Mortality occurred in 22 children (30%), with half of these occurring at presentation. The two important causes of death were infection and end-stage renal disease. Actuarial survival was 81%, 67% and 59% at one, five and 10 years, respectively. In the worst-case scenario, actuarial survival was 72%, 53% and 38%, respectively. Renal survival was 96%, 89% and 78% (worst-case scenario 86%, 73% and 52%) at one, five and 10 years, respectively. There was no difference in survival by histological class. On univariate analysis, serum creatinine at presentation (hazard ratio=2.2 (95% CI 1.3-3.9)) and serious infection (hazard ratio 7.9 (95% CI 2.6-23.5)) were statistically significant predictors of time-to-death. Conclusion Outcome of children with lupus nephritis from India is worse than developed countries. Nearly one-third of the children died, half at presentation, with common causes being infection and end-stage renal disease.