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Recurrence of original disease is a common threat in the field of transplantation. Recurrence of nephrotic syndrome is not common in children with congenital nephrotic syndrome (CNS). We report a case of a female child with CNS who presented with nephrotic state at first month of age and became dialysis dependent at 17 months of age. After seven months of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis, she received a kidney from a deceased donor. Eight months after transplantation, she presented with a full-blown feature of nephrotic syndrome. She responded well to rituximab.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is now considered as the major cause of end-stage kidney failure, and hypertension (HTN) is one of the main determinants of progression of renal disease. The aim of this study was to assess the role of blood pressure (BP) by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in children and adolescents with type-1 DM and its correlation with micro-albuminuria (MA) and diabetic control. Eighty-one patients with type-1 DM (mean age 13 ± 4 years), whose duration of DM was at least two years, were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of HTN based on ABPM was 28.4%, while by casual method it was 32.1%. The pattern of HTN was as follows: mean systolic HTN 27.2%, mean diastolic HTN 11.2%, daytime systolic HTN 17.3%, daytime diastolic HTN 6.2%, night systolic HTN 30.9%, and night diastolic HTN 29.7%. The systolic and diastolic BP loads were 33.4 and 27.2%, respectively. About 70.4% of the patients were non-dippers, 12.4% had masked HTN, and 3.7% had white coat HTN. The pre-valence of MA was 34.6% and that of abnormal HbA 1 c was 82.7%. There was no correlation between HTN and both MA and HbA 1 c; also, no correlation was found between the duration of diabetes and HbA 1 c. Moreover, no significant correlation was found between the duration of diabetes and MA (P = 0.080). Despite the high prevalence of abnormal BP profile among diabetic children, prospective longitudinal studies considering the other major risk factors, particularly genetic factors, which have an impact on the progression to diabetic nephropathy, are recommended.

Growth retardation is common among children with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Renal transplantation has beneficial effects on height and weight gain of children, but height gain occurs especially for those children who are transplanted at a younger age. This study was conducted for a cross-sectional evaluation of growth and body mass index (BMI) in children following kidney transplantation. All children who had been transplanted in our center and had regular follow-up were entered in this study. Those with primary non-functioning grafts were excluded from the study. Weight and height at transplantation and at 20 years of age or at a pre-determined period (1-4-2008 to 30-6-2008) were recorded. Their height, weight, BMI, standard deviation score (SDS) of height and weight at their pre- and post-transplantation period were compared. SPSS 15.1 software and paired t-test were used for comparison of means. Seventy-one children, 43 boys and 28 girls, were involved in this study. The mean age at transplantation was 12.6 ± 3.45 years, ranging from 3 to 19 years, and age at last visit was 16.9 ± 3.15 years. They had been followed-up for 7-175 months (mean, 51.6 ± 30.75 months). Their primary renal diseases were as follows: reflux, obstruction and dysplasia 29 (41%), hereditary 25 (35%), glomerular disease 14 (20%), unknown 3 (4%). Source of donor was living related in 27 (38%), with 15 being mothers, deceased in 35 (49%) and living unrelated in 9 (13%). SDS height improved dramatically in post-transplantation evaluation, but this did not happen for SDS weight and BMI. We can conclude that despite a dramatic effect of transplantation on growth, catch-up growth only occurred in a minority of the children.

A 15-year-old girl, a known case of Bartter's syndrome (BS) for 7 years, developed severe pain in her right knee and right and left ankle. Her older sister had BS and developed end-stage renal disease (ESRD) at the age of 14 years. Her serum uric acid was 12.6 mg/dL, 6 months ago, and 15.4 mg/dL in her recent lab data. Hyperuricemia and gouty arthritis are commonly seen in adults with BS, but to our knowledge there is no report of gouty arthritis in pediatric literature.

Minimal change disease (MCD) and focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) are often studied together, because both present with heavy proteinuria and the nephrotic syndrome. The precise distinction between MCD and FSGS is sometimes difficult because of inadequate number of glomeruli for definite diagnosis. Some evidence suggests that markers of lipid peroxidation, such as malondialdehyde (MDA) is an index of free radical mediated injury and may be involved in the pathogenesis of FSGS. In this study, we assessed the immunoreactivity of MDA, the end product of lipid peroxidation in glomeruli of patients with idiopathic FSGS, MCD as well as normal controls (NC). Our results showed that the immunostaining level of MDA was significantly higher in patients with FSGS (mean = 1.5) than in either patients with MCD (mean = 0.16) or normal controls (mean = 0.11) with P value < 0.001. Glomerular MDA level correlated well with the degree of glomerulosclerosis in patients with idiopathic FSGS. Our data demonstrates that the glomerular level of MDA is higher in idiopathic FSGS than MCD. We suggest that MDA immunostaining can be helpful in differentiating between FSGS and MCD in problematic cases and when we do not have enough glomeruli for definite and correct diagnosis.

In this report, we present a case of a child with distal renal tubular acidosis, severe failure to thrive and profound rickets, who was only 7.8 Kg when presented at 6 years of age. His response to treatment and his follow-up for four years is discussed. Although failure to thrive is a common finding in renal tubular acidosis but the physical and x-ray findings in our case were unique.