Table 1 Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the LN patients*

Sex (male/female)

3/22

16/83

0.837

Age (years)

35 ± 14

33 ± 14

0.485

SLE duration (months)

48 (8 to 126)

19 (4 to 69.5)

0.096

LN duration (months)

19 (1 to 78)

4.5 (1–24)

0.101

SLEDAI

17 ± 6

12 ± 6

0.002

Proteinuria (g/24 hours)

3.24 (2.22 to 4.66)

2.01 (1.19 to 3.66)

0.005

Serum creatinine (μmol/L)

99.7(67.85 to 118.5)

59.6(49.08 to 82.75)

<0.001

Blood urea nitrogen (mmol/L)

11.3 (6.05 to 15)

6.4 (4.9 to 10)

0.007

Serum C3 (g/L)

0.44 ± 0.23

0.62 ± 0.26

0.003

Serum C4 (g/L)

0.09 (0.06 to 0.17)

0.10 (0.05 to 0.17)

0.717

Serum C1q (g/L)

0.38 (0.34 to 0.43)

0.33 (0.29 to 0.40)

0.092

ANA (positive/negative)^†

20/3

82/8

0.837

Anti-Sm (positive/negative)

3/20

32/58

0.037

Anti-RNP (positive/negative)

4/19

34/56

0.065

Anti-dsDNA (positive/negative)^‡

20/5

67/29

0.312

Anti-nucleosome(positive/negative)^¶

10/6

21/25

0.246

Anti-histone (positive/negative)^§

10/5

30/19

0.703