Albumin-to-globulin ratio as a potential predictor of renal remission in lupus nephritis

Background: Optimal prognostic predictors in lupus nephritis (LN) are still not clearly defined. Studies have recently shown that albumin-to- globulin ratio (A/G) is not only a good predictor of outcomes in malignancy, infection and renal disease, but is also a potential marker of increased immunoglobulin synthesis and LN activity and might be useful as a predictor of the development of LN in SLE patients. Studies on the role of A/G in predicting outcomes in LN are, however, lacking. Objectives: To assess a potential prognostic value of A/G at renal biopsy in predicting outcomes in LN. Methods: In this retrospective study we analyzed the demographic, histologic, laboratory and clinical characteristics of patients with biopsy- proven LN diagnosed between 2011 and 2020. All patients met the 1997 revised American College of Rheumatology classification criteria for SLE. Complete remission was defined as proteinuria 0.05 ; Figure 1 ) and was not a significant predictor of remission in a multivariate regression model (OR 5.9, 95% CI 0.6, 63.2). Conclusion: While being a potential marker for transition of SLE to LN, A/G was not showed to be a predictor of renal remission in LN.