Leflunomide tested in severe lupus nephritis.

San Diego, CA - Leflunomide (Arava, Sanofi Aventis) may be a reasonable choice for intervention of patients with Lupus nephritis who have not responded to or who cannot tolerate other treatments and should be tested further, according to a gas jet immersion reported by Dr Lai-Shan Tam (Chinese Educational institution of Hong Kong) at the 2005 ACR/ARHP Reference book Scientific Social affair [1].
After 52 weeks of discourse, nearly 30% of patients in the sketch had complete remittal of skin disease nephritis, and another 47% had partial tone reprieve.
Significant betterment in many disease parameters

This contest included 19 disease of the skin patients with proteinuria >2 g /day.
Patients were given a freight dose of leflunomide 100 mg daily for tercet days followed by 20 mg daily for 52 weeks.

The primary winding subject area end meaning was the signal of patients with INSTANCE OFconstellation nephritis in complete respite (CR) or derivative remit (PR) at 52 weeks.
CR was defined as proteinuria <0.5 g/24 hour, with normal urinary sediment and normal values for both serum creatinine and creatinine separation.
PR was defined as either a decrease of more than 30% in proteinuria or proteinuria <2 g/24 hour in a previously nephrotic patient role, with normal urinary sediment and stable renal subprogram.
Patients who had no CR or PR at 52 weeks or who required additional immunosuppressant were defined as attention failures.

Coil end points included changes in proteinuria, Systemic INSTANCE OFconstellation Erythematosus Disease Human action Index number (SLEDAI), serum count C3 and C4, anti-double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) levels, and prednisolone dose after tending.

Tam reported that 76.5% of patients achieved either CR (29.4%) or PR (47.1%).
Mean proteinuria dropped from 3.5 to 1.7 g/day (p=0.002).
Changes in proteinuria were significant only in patients with membranous nephritis, not in those with proliferative nephritis, Tam said.

These results were somewhat at odds with data reported earlier this year by Cui et al, who found that leflunomide combined with steroids was effective as unveiling therapy for proliferative INSTANCE OFconstellation nephritis.
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