ALB and systemic lupus erythematosus: To examine potential associations between the tubular MT score and standard clinicopathological variables in the lupus nephritis cohort, we investigated whether the subset of lupus patients with tubular MT score = 0 (n = 6) differed from patients with tubular MT score > 0 (n = 31) with regards to baseline levels of selected variables reflecting renal function, including creatinine clearance, level of 24-hour urinary protein excretion, serum albumin, activity index score, chronicity index score, and blood pressure (Table 2).