Background: Sever lupus nephritis is a serious complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) which carries significant morbidity and mortality and requires an aggressive immunosuppressive therapy.Objective: To evaluate the effect of induction treatment by Mycophenolatemofetil(MMF) versus IVCyclophosphamide (IVC) on 24h urinary protein and S.Creatininein lupus nephritis patients.Patient andMethods: Retrospective cohort study in single center, Cairo, Egypt, 100 patients had enrolled withproliferative lupus nephritis. Data extraction sheet was designed to collect clinical and laboratory dataretrospectively from records of patients whom received induction therapy during the period (October 2010– November 2014) and follow up data fora period of 3 months after induction. Complete remission wasconsidered when (Proteinuria ≤0.33 g/d and serum creatinine ≤1.4 mg/dl) and partial remission was (50%reduction in baseline proteinuria to ≤1.5 g/d and ≤25% increase in baseline creatinine).Results: The study included 81% females and 19% males with mean of age was 30.40±7.45 and range (16 - 46) year, 29% of all patients had class III lupus nephritis and 71% had class IV. 48 patients received MMF and 52 patients received IVC. In MMF group of patients, 12(25%) patients had complete remission, 8(16.6%) had partial remission and 28(58.3%) showed failure of remission versus IVC group, 10(19.2%) had complete remission, 15(28.8%) had partial remission and 27(51.9%) failed to enter remission. There was a nonsignificant statistical difference (X2=2.17, P=0.337) between both groups regarding rate of remission. The mean of S.Creatinine and 24h urinary protein after 3 months of induction treatment in MMF group was (2.89±10.9, 1466.78±902.07) respectively versus (1.49±0.641, 1466.78±902.07) in IVC group of patients,with no significant statistical difference between both groups (P>0.05).Conclusion: MMF and IV cyclophosphamide both with corticosteroid showed similar efficacy as short term induction treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis.
