Serum Levels of BAFF and APRIL Predict Clinical Response in Anti-PLA2R-Positive Primary Membranous Nephropathy

Figure 5

Cumulative incidence of complete/partial remission after immunosuppressive therapy among patients stratified for BAFF and APRIL serum levels. (a) Anti-PLA2R-positive PMN patients with at the time of renal biopsy achieved the composite endpoint with a significantly higher percentage, as compared with the patients with BAFF/BLyS above the cut-off (97.1% vs. 43.7%, log-rank test, ). (b) Anti-PLA2R-positive PMN patients with at the time of renal biopsy achieved the composite endpoint with a significantly higher percentage, as compared with the patients with APRIL above the cut-off (94.4% vs. 46.7%, log-rank test, ). (c) If the entire study cohort was assigned to three groups depending on both cytokine baseline serum levels, patients with both BAFF/BLyS and APRIL below the cut-off (continuous line) showed a significantly higher complete or partial remission rate as compared with patients with only one cytokine above the cut-off (dashed line) or with patients with both cytokines above the cut-off (dotted line) (100% vs. 80.% vs. 17.3%, Kaplan-Meier lifetime analysis and log-rank test, ).

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