• Ting Huang, Shasha Xie, Liqing Ding, Xiaofeng Zeng, and Hui Luo.
• Department of Rheumatology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
• Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 2022 Mar 1; 134 (5-6): 202-207.

ObjectiveTo identify and reclassify the patients in the lupus nephritis (LN) cohort, and to further analyze the prominent clinical features and clinical significance of each cluster.MethodsIn this retrospective cross-sectional study, we used a two-step clustering method to classify 635 patients with LN into different clusters, then we observed the main differences and analyzed relevant clinical significance between the clusters.ResultsCluster 1 (20.5%) presented with the highest disease severity, patients in this group had the disease for a longer duration and higher systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index (SLEDAI) score, with multiple positive auto-antibodies and lower complement level. Patients of cluster 2 (20.8%) had lower levels of IgG, IgA and IgM, with renal function being relatively worse in this cluster than in clusters 1 and 3. Cluster 3 was the largest group (58.7%), and the patients in this group showed mild disease severity.ConclusionThis study reclassified LN patients in a large cohort into three clusters. Our classification might be helpful to implement targeted therapy at various stages of systemic lupus erythematosus.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.

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