Effect of long-term normalization of serum complement levels on the course of lupus nephritis.

Purpose: We compared the long-term outcome of patients with lupus nephritis in whom normalization of complement levels (CH50) was sustained by adjustment of immunosuppressive therapy to those patients with persistently low complement levels despite similar immunosuppression in whom therapy was adjusted solely on the basis of clinical disease activity.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-nine female patients with lupus nephritis recruited from 1972 to 1979 were prospectively studied (mean follow-up, 116.7 +/- 11 months).