Rheumatological diseases and kidneys: a nephrologist's perspective

Abstract

Renal involvement is a common occurrence in subjects with rheumatological diseases and can develop either due to the disease itself or secondary to drugs used in the treatment. The prevalence of renal involvement and its severity depends on the underlying disease as well as aggressiveness of the therapy. For most rheumatological diseases, renal involvement heralds a poor prognosis and warrants aggressive immunosuppressive treatment. Thus, it is important to diagnose and manage them at an early stage. On the other hand, patients with primary kidney disease can also develop rheumatological manifestations which need to be differentiated from the former. This article provides the nephrologist's perspective upon various rheumatological disorders and associated renal involvement with the aim of sensitizing the rheumatological community about them, resulting in better management of these subjects.

Keywords: kidney diseases; lupus nephritis; renal biopsy; rheumatoid arthritis; vasculitis.