Abstract
Renal biopsy specimens from 67 cases with SLE were analysed to investigate the relationship between clinical data and their light & electron microscopic findings. The classification of glomerular lesions and their percentage were as follows: normal or minimal change (4.5%), diffuse proliferative gl-n. (74.6%), focal & segmental gl-n. (4.5%), membronous gl-n. (8.9%) and membranoproliferative gl-n. (7.5%). In the characteristic findings by electron microscopy, dense deposits were found in 91.0% of 67 cases and mesangial deposits were common and found in 91.8% of cases with deposits. In 6.6% of dense deposits observed, there was an organised apperance (“fingerprint pattern”) composed of straight or curved parallel microfilaments. In addition to glomerular deposits, microtubular inclusions and spherical microparticles were found in 73.1%, 11.9% respectively. Cases without deposits or only with measangial deposits tended to show scanty proteinuria, on the other hand, all cases with massive proteinuria had subepithelial deposits. In untreated cases, low serum complement and positive anti-DNA antibodies were found more frequently in minimal and diffuse proliferative gl-n. than in membranous gl-n. Prognosis of cases with diffuse proliferative gl-n. having massive subendothelial deposits seemed to be poor. Seven cases were rebiposied four months to seven years later. Three of seven cases showed the transformation of its morphologic patterns on light microscopy.
