
Professor Liz Lightstone
Consultant Nephrologist
About Liz Lightstone
Liz Lightstone is Professor of Renal Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, and an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Renal and Transplant Centre in Hammersmith Hospital.
Prof. Lightstone is considered a global authority on the management of lupus nephritis and is widely recognised for her expertise in inflammatory kidney disease more generally, including nephrotic syndrome and all forms of glomerular disease as well as the prevention and treatment of chronic kidney disease particularly in patients from Black and other minority communities.
She is also a leading authority in pre-pregnancy counselling and antenatal care for women with kidney disease and in her NHS practice has cared for over 1000 women going through pregnancy with kidney disease.
Through her research, Prof Lightstone has pioneered steroid minimizing regimens for lupus nephritis, influenced global lupus nephritis trials design, and developed novel approaches to assess adherence to medications. Her research on pregnancy in women with kidney disease, has led to an updated evidence base to advise women on the impact of CKD on kidney and fetal outcomes, defined normal kidney function in pregnancy, and identified biomarkers of preeclampsia in women with CKD.
Prof. Lightstone is an active member of numerous committees and advisory boards, & was the founding national coordinator UK Renal Disease and Pregnancy Rare Disease Group. She has contributed to guidelines on lupus and lupus nephritis, pregnancy and kidney disease, & advised NICE in these areas.
During the COVID19 pandemic she developed additional expertise in the management of severe COVID in patients with and without kidney disease - co-chairing the Trust's COVID Treatment and Guideline group and is part of an exceptionally productive research programme evaluating immune responses to COVID infections and after COVID vaccination in immunocompromised patients.
Expertise
- Renal Medicine
- Obstetric Renal Medicine
- Lupus Nephritis
- Glomerulonephritis
- Autoimmune Kidney Disease
- CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease)
- Hypertension and Pregnancy Planning and Oversight for Women with Kidney Disease
Overview
- Age of patients seen
- 18+
- Qualifications
- Languages spoken
- English
- Online profiles
- Research highlights
Publications on Glomerulonephritis:
Condon MB, Ashby D, Pepper RJ, Cook HT, Levy JB, Griffith M, Cairns TD, Lightstone L. Prospective observational single-centre cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of treating lupus nephritis with rituximab and mycophenolate mofetil but no oral steroids. Ann Rheum Dis. 2013, 72:1280-6.
Cunha C, Alexander S, Ashby D, Lee J, Chusney G, Cairns TD, Lightstone L. Hydroxychloroquine blood concentration in lupus nephritis: a determinant of disease outcome? Nephrol Dial Transplant 2018, 33:1604-1610
Miloslavsky EM, Naden RP, Bijlsma JWJ, Brogan PA, Sherwood Brown E, Brunetta P, Buttgereit F, Choi HK, DiCaire J-F, Gelfand JM, Heaney LG, Lightstone L, Lu N, Murrell DF, Petri M, Rosenbaum JT, Saag KS, Urowitz MB, Winthrop KL, Stone JH. Development of a glucocorticoid toxicity index (GTI) using multicriteria decision analysis. Ann Rheum Dis 2017, 76:543-546
Carter SA, Lightstone L, Cattran D, Bagga A et al Standardised outcomes in Nephrology-Glomerular disease (SONG-GD): establishing a core outcome set for trials in patients with glomerular disease Kidney Int 2019, 95:1280-83
Publications on pregnancy in women with kidney disease:
Wiles K, Webster P, Seed PT, Bennett-Richards K, Bramham K, Brunskill N, Carr S, Hall M, Khan R, Nelson-Piercy C, Webster LM, Chappell LC & Lightstone L. The Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease Stages 3-5 on Pregnancy Outcomes. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2021, 36:2008-2017
Wiles K, Chappell L, Clark K, Elman L, Hall M, Lightstone L, Mohammed G, Mukherjee D, Nelson-Piercy C, Webster P, Whybrow R and Bramham K
Renal Association Clinical Practice Guideline (NICE accredited): Pregnancy and Renal Disease 2019 https://ukkidney.org/sites/renal.org/files/FINAL-Pregnancy-Guideline-September-2019.pdf and Clinical practice guideline on pregnancy and renal disease BMC Nephrol 2019, 20:401-444
Publications on COVID 19 and kidney patients:
Turner-Stokes T, Edwards H and Lightstone L COVID-19 in patients with glomerular disease Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens 2022, 31:191-198
Prendecki M, Clarke C, Edwards H, McIntyre S, Mortimer P, Gleeson S, Martin P, Thomson T, Randell P, Shah A, Singanayagam A, Lightstone L, Cox A, Kelleher P, Willicombe M and McAdoo S Humoral and T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients receiving immunosuppression Ann Rheum Dis 2021, 80:1322-1329
- Certifications and Awards
1983 MBBS (Hons) Proxime Accessit (runner up to the Gold Medallist), University of London
1983 Senior Scholar Kings College Hospital Medical School
1988-1991 MRC Clinical Training Fellow, ICRF Tumour Immunology Unit, UCL PhD in Immunology awarded by University College London 1993
1991-1995 MRC Clinician Scientist Training Fellow, Dept of Immunology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School
Professor Lightstone has also given numerous invited and keynote lectures around the globe. Highlights include:
2021: Peter Schur Visiting Professor, Brigham and Women’s Rheumatology Grand Rounds April 2021
Invited speaker and session chair at International Society of Nephrology World Congress of Nephrology annually since 2019
Invited speaker and session chair at American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week annually since 2016 (both at main meeting and early programme on glomerular disease)
2016: Chandos Lecture at UK Kidney Week
Consultations and services
Insurers covered


- +5 more
- Allianz Partners
- Bupa International
- Cigna International
- Healix
- Henner
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