ABSTRACT:
Background: Lupus nephritis (LN) is one of the most serious manifestations of SLE. Conventional clinical parameters are not sensitive or specific enough for early detection of LN. Objective: This study aims to estimate the possibility of using antibodies to monomeric CRP as an early indicator of renal involvement in patients with SLE. Patients and methods: This study was performed at the Department of Clinical Pathology and Rheumatology, at Aswan University Hospital. It involved 30 (4 male and 26 female) outpatients complaining of SLE and 15 age-matching healthy controls (2 male and 13 female). They were grouped into three case groups and a healthy control group. Group1: healthy control group.Group 2: patients with microalbuminuria and urinary sediment.Group 3: patients with microalbuminuria without urinary sediment. Group 4: patients with macroalbuminuria. A full workup including history taking, clinical examination, and another related laboratory investigation was performed. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the groups (p = 0.001) in the median levels of anti-mCRP-Ab. All groups significantly differ from the control group in the median levels of anti-mCRP-Ab (p = 0.014, 0.026, 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: anti-mCRP-Ab may be an early biomarker of lupus nephritis with a high level of specificity and accuracy.