Symptoms of Lupus Nephritis

SLE is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system produces antibodies or protein to identify and fight against foreign objects like bacteria and viruses which are called antigen. In Lupus Nephritis, antibody combines with antigen, forming immune complexes which deposit in kidney and cause damages on kidney tissues.

　　Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect almost any part of your body, most often your joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood, or brain. Your two kidneys are part of your renal system, which also includes two ureters, the bladder, and the urethra. When kidneys are damaged and fail to work properly, the following

symptoms will occur.
　　Blood in the urine

Blood in your urine, or hematuria, is blood that is found in your urine. It can be microscopic or gross.

　　.Microscopic hematuria is when there is very little blood in the urine and it can only be detected with urine tests or under a microscope.
　　.Gross hematuria is when there is enough blood in the urine that you can see it with the naked eye. Usually it turns toilet water pale pink or bright red. Or, you may see spots of blood in the water after urinating.

　　Foamy urine
　　Foamy urine indicates that there is too much protein in urine. In the early stage of kidney disease caused by Hypertension, only a small amount of protein leak into urine. But with the worse of kidney disease, more and more protein gets into urine and while they get out of patient's body with urine, foams are formed. Therefore, if Hypertension patients found they have lots of foams in their urine, they are very likely to have developed kidney problem.

　　Renal tubular damages
　　Lupus can damage renal tubules and patients can have low urine specific gravity and osmotic pressure, frequent night urination as well as electrolyte disorders such as hyperkalaemia or hypokalaemia, etc.

　　Some other symptoms
　　.Elevated blood pressure
　　.Weight increase
　　.Sudden and unexplained swelling, especially in the extremities (feet, ankles, legs, fingers, arms) or the eyes
　　.Increased urination, especially at night

　　When Lupus Nephritis develops to advanced stage, patients will experience more symptoms like nausea, vomit, fatigue, shortness of breath, anemia and itching skin and so on.

http://www.sos-kidney.com/Symptom/Common-Kidney-Diseases/152.html