Renal Thrombotic Microangiopathy: A Complication of Paediatric Systemic Lupus Erythematosus That Requires Attention

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multi-system disorder with a variety of clinical presentations. A wide range of renal vascular lesions (VL) is described predominantly in adult patients. The exact prevalence of renal VL in the pediatric SLE (pSLE) population is yet to be determined. A 10-year-old female patient with lupus nephritis (LN) presented with deteriorating kidney function. An exhaustive array of clinicalbiochemical and pathological evaluations resulted in a diagnosis of class IV LN with thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) associated with malignant hypertension and hypocomplementemia. Renal VL is overlooked or underreported in SLE patients, as it is neither accorded much importance in the International Society of Nephrology/Renal Pathology Society (ISN/RPS) classification nor in the activity and chronicity scoring. The TMA lesions in LN patients can be managed following the recently devised PLASMIC score; hence, reporting such VL has therapeutic implications.