Practice variations in the management of childhood nephrotic syndrome in the Netherlands

Current Understanding of Nephrotic Syndrome in Children

Nephrotic syndrome in children is mostly idiopathic in origin. About 90% of patients respond to corticosteroids; 80-90% have at least one relapse and 3-10% become corticosteroid resistant after the initial response. A kidney biopsy is seldom indicated for diagnosis except in patients with atypical presentation or corticosteroid resistance. For those in remission, the risk of relapse is reduced by the administration of daily low dose corticosteroids for 5-7 days at the onset of an upper respiratory infection. Some patients may continue having relapses through adult life. Many country-specific practice guidelines have been published, which are very similar with clinically insignificant differences.

Aberrant Expression of SIRT6 and VNN1 in Peripheral Blood Monocytes of Children with Primary Nephrotic Syndrome and Its Diagnostic and Prognostic Values

Objective

The objective is to explore the aberrant sirtuin-6 (SIRT6) and Vanin-1 (VNN1) protein expression in peripheral blood monocytes (PBM) of children with primary nephrotic syndrome (PNS) and its diagnostic and prognostic values.

Methods

83 child patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS) and 65 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. The test of SIRT6 and VNN1 was performed by the Western blot. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the diagnostic and prognostic value of SIRT6 and VNN1 for child patients with NS. The logistic regression was used to analyze the association of SIRT6 and VNN1 with the prognosis of NS child patients.

Results

SIRT6 in monocytes in the study group was inferior versus the control, while VNN1 outweighed it. The AUC of the combined detection of SIRT6 and VNN1 for the diagnosis of NS was 0.854, with a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 80.7%. The AUC of combined detection of SIRT6 and VNN1 for the prognosis of NS was 0.860, with a sensitivity of 84.6% and a specificity of 79.2%. The logistic regression analysis showed that less than 21.09 in SIRT6 was the number of risk factors for the prognosis of NS child patients (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

SIRT6 and VNN1 are provided with diagnostic and prognostic values for NS.

Serum immunoglobulin E level in children with nephrotic syndrome

Background and objective: The most supported theory for Nephrotic Syndrome (NS) etiology is that it is immune-mediated. This study aims to assess the level of serum IgE in children with Steroid Sensitive NS (SSNS) at relapse and remission, and its correlation with the presence of atopy. Methods: This cross-sectional study was approved by the Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Al-Nahrain University (Baghdad, Iraq) and conducted at Al-Imamain Al-Kadhimain Medical City (Baghdad, Iraq), and Child Central Teaching Hospital (Baghdad, Iraq), and included 31 children SSNS. The data collected was: age, sex, residency, onset of NS, response to steroid, frequency of relapses, and the history of atopy of the patient and his relatives. Serum IgE level was measured during relapse for all patients and for 9 patients while in remission. Results: Atopy was present in 18 (58.06%) of patients. The median serum IgE level was 295.5 IU/mL (range 54-2864 IU/mL) in relapse, which is significantly higher (P-value =0.006) than in remission 228.5 IU/mL (range 62-2069 IU/mL). Median serum level of IgE in patients with atopy was 290.5 IU/mL (range 24-2864 IU/mL) which was higher than that of patients without atopy (median 231 IU/mL, range 23-1314 IU/m) (P-value = 0.029). Patients required longer period to respond to steroid therapy (>10 days) had a significantly higher median of IgE (341 IU/mL) than those who required <10 days to respond (161 IU/mL) (P-value =0.045). Conclusions: Increased IgE level is documented during relapse and in atopic children with SSNS. Longer duration to respond to steroid therapy is associated significantly with higher serum IgE during relapse.