Lupus and Lupus Nephritis (Kidney Inflammation)

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can effect the kidneys. This is from an excellent article by Raymond L Sherman, MD.

Dr. Sherman is a clinical Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease. The immune system that normally protects you from invading bacteria and viruses runs amok. It attacks parts of your own body as if it were an outside invader. There is a list of symptoms and disorders that doctors use to help decide whether you have lupus. Not everyone with lupus has everything on the list. But you have to have a certain number in order to be diagnosed.

One of the items on the list is renal disease - the medical name for kidney disease. The kidney disease of lupus can show itself in several different ways. It can range from mild to severe. When lupus attacks the kidneys, antibodies from your immune system link to antigens in your body to form immune complexes. These immune complexes circulate in blood and travel to the kidneys. Both kidneys are affected in the same way. Just as lupus causes inflammation in other areas of the body, it causes inflammation in the kidney, which is called nephritis.

Click here to read the full article, "Lupus and Lupus Nephritis (Kidney Inflammation.)"