Kudose S, et al. - Researchers compared 300 consecutive biopsies with lupus nephritis vs 560 contemporaneous biopsies with nonlupus glomerulopathies in order to determine the combination of pathologic characteristics to diagnose lupus nephritis with optimal sensitivity and specificity. They discovered five characteristic features of lupus nephritis, each with sensitivity ranging from 0.68 to 0.80 and specificity from 0.8 to 0.96: “full-house” staining by immunofluorescence, intense C1q staining, extraglomerular deposits, combined subendothelial and subepithelial deposits, and endothelial tubuloreticular inclusions. A sensitivity of 0.92, 0.8, and 0.66 and a specificity of 0.89, 0.95, and 0.98 was yielded by the presence of at least two, three, or four of the five criteria, respectively, for diagnosing lupus nephritis. Findings revealed the ability of combinations of pathologic features to differentiate lupus nephritis from nonlupus glomerulopathies with high specificity and different sensitivity. Characteristic features of lupus nephritis may be shown by rare examples of nonlupus glomerulopathies, however, even with stringent criteria.