What are the signs that SLE is causing kidney disease?
As in most kidney diseases, symptoms are rare in the early part of SLE affecting the kidney. There may be abnormalities on testing the urine protein and blood may be found (proteinuria and haematuria). In some cases the protein leak may be large enough to cause nephrotic syndrome. When there is more inflammation in the kidney, blood may also appear in the urine usually in small quantities that are only picked up by testing. In more severe disease, blood pressure rises, blood tests of kidney function become abnormal, and eventually the amount of urine produced may fall and the kidneys fail completely.
