TY - JOUR T1 - Influence of renal complications on the efficacy and adverse events of tacrolimus combination therapy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) during a maintenance phase: a single-centre, prospective study JF - Lupus Science & Medicine DO - 10.1136/lupus-2015-000091 VL - 2 IS - 1 SP - e000091 AU - Sho Ishii AU - Yusuke Miwa AU - Kumiko Otsuka AU - Shinichiro Nishimi AU - Airi Nishimi AU - Mayu Saito AU - Yoko Miura AU - Nao Oguro AU - Takahiro Tokunaga AU - Ryo Takahashi AU - Tsuyoshi Kasama Y1 - 2015/05/01 UR - http://lupus.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000091.abstract N2 - Objectives The study investigated whether renal complications affected the efficacy and safety of tacrolimus combination therapy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) during a maintenance phase.Methods Fifty-seven patients with SLE (A: 30 cases with renal complication, B: 27 cases without renal complications) were included. The presence of renal complications was defined as proteinuria ≥0.5 g/day and lupus nephritis on renal biopsy. Major outcome measures included SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), steroid dose, serum anti-dsDNA Ab, C3 and creatinine (Cr) levels and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The patient's background factors included age, gender, disease duration and ACE-I/angiotensin II receptor blocker and statin therapies. We compared these outcome measures pre treatment and after 1 year of treatment.Results The SLEDAI and serum C3 levels improved in both groups from pretreatment period to post-treatment period: from 7.2±5.0 to 2.8±2.3 in A and 6.4±3.8 to 2.4±2.2 in B, p<0.001, and from 65.9±24.6 to 77.7±18.2 mg/dL in A and 81.8±23.0 to 90.6±19.4 mg/dL in B, p=0.002, respectively. The anti-dsDNA antibody level was reduced, and the serum Cr and eGFR levels were slightly elevated. No patients developed end-stage renal failure that required artificial dialysis.Conclusions Tacrolimus combination therapy had additive beneficial effects on reduced proteinuria and increased serum C3 levels in patients with SLE with renal complications during a maintenance phase. ER -