Urinary albumin and beta 2-microglobulin excretion rates in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

The daily urinary albumin and beta 2-microglobulin excretion rates were measured with sensitive radioimmunoassays in 14 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The duration of SLE ranged from 0.5 to 18 years, mean 10 years. The mean age was 37 years. All patients except 5 received prednisone, 5-20 mg/day. None of the patients had proteinuria as judged by the "Albustix" test, and all had normal serum creatinine. The daily urinary albumin and beta 2-microglobulin excretion rates were nearly the same as those previously found by us in 27 adult control subjects with a mean age of 44 years. Our study shows that SLE patients without clinical proteinuria have a completely normal renal glomerular and tubular protein handling, irrespective of the duration of the disease.