Healthy Living

The Link Between Nephritis and Lupus

Symptoms of Kidney Disease in Lupus

It is important to understand that in more than 90% of cases of lupus there is damage to the kidneys, but in most cases, it would not progress to cause symptoms. Thus, kidney function needs to be closely monitored in all cases of lupus. In the long run, at least half of the cases of lupus would develop some symptoms.

Most of the symptoms of kidney disease occur due to fluid retention, like swelling in feet, ankles, legs, hand, and face. Kidney damage also leads to high blood pressure. Other symptoms could be a fever of unknown cause and body pains.

Symptoms of kidney disease would depend on the amount of kidney cells damaged, which can only be estimated with the help of laboratory tests. Depending on the amount of damage to the kidneys, lupus nephritis has been classified into six classes, with Class-I indicating minimum damage and no-symptoms to Class-VI indicating end-stage renal disease with more than 90% damage(6).