Beyond clinicopathologic correlations in lupus nephritis: Future lies in molecular-based composite classification

Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:

Clinicopathologic correlations in lupus nephritis (LN) have traditionally provided the basis for pathologic classification of the disease on renal biopsy. However, these correlations are not perfect. Although renal biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosing and classifying LN, it suffers from inherent shortcomings and drawbacks. The currently used ISN/RPS classification is mainly based on morphology and is glomerulocentric in outlook. Given the imperfections of ISN/RPS classification of LN, the future lies in the integration of traditional morphology with clinical, genetic and molecular markers to classify the disease more accurately and make the biopsy report more informative for choosing best treatment, to predict the response to treatment and to prognosticate the course of disease in an individual patient.

Please cite this paper as: Mubarak M. Beyond clinicopathologic correlations in lupus nephritis: Future lies in molecular-based composite classification. J Nephropathol. 2022;11(3):e17148. DOI: 10.34172/jnp.2022.17148.