ABSTRACT
Background: Idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS) is a common childhood renal disease characterized by a remitting and relapsing course, associated with different histopathological subtypes. The true incidence of various histopathological subtypes of NS remains under estimated owing to the diversity in indication criteria for performing renal biopsies in pediatric population.Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study in children with nephrotic syndrome at a tertiary health care centre. Total 22 children, with nephrotic syndrome, who underwent renal biopsy procedure during a period of one year, were enrolled for the study. Indications of renal biopsy were noted, and the histopathology reports were studied in detail.Results: In this study group, the most common indication for renal biopsy was 'Atypical age (> 8years) of diagnosis in 45.5% (10/22) patients, followed by 22.7% (5/22) in 'Children presenting with hypertension and hematuria'.The most common histopathological finding in these children was mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis in 45.5% (10/22) patients followed by IgA nephropathy with mesangial proliferation in 22.72% (5/22) and minimal change disease in only 13.6% (3/22).Conclusions: This study highlights the occurrence of non-MCD as the common cause of INS in the children and denotes the significance of performing renal biopsies in children with INS for better prognostication.
ABSTRACT
Background & objectives: Reliable CD4 counts are important for successful implementation of antiretroviral treatment (ART). Availability of dry CD4 reagents can eliminate cold chain requirement reducing shipment and storage cost. An attempt was made in this study to validate the ReaPan and Rea T Count dry reagents developed by ReaMetrix against the original BD Biosciences liquid reagents. Method: Absolute counts and percentages of CD4, CD8 and CD3 + T cells obtained in 100 HIV infected individuals using the test and reference reagents were analyzed for correlation and agreement using Pearson’s correlation and Bland Altman bias analysis . The stability of the reagents and of the stained samples was analyzed at ambient temperature and at 37oC. Results: The absolute CD4 + T cell count and percentages obtained using test and reference reagents showed correlation coefficients ranging from 833 to 981. A mean bias between dry and reference reagents ranged from 0.8 to 26.4. The ReaPan and Rea T Count reagents were stable up to one month at 37oC also. The samples stained with ReaPan reagents were stable at ambient temperature till day 7 whereas the samples stained with Rea T Count reagents were stable at ambient temperature and at 37oC for 10 days. Interpretation & conclusions: The ReaPan dry reagents can be used on existing FACSCalibur machines with additional training on Cell Quest Pro software without incurring any additional equipment cost and this can eliminate the requirement of cold chain during transport and on site storage. The stability of the stained samples has great clinical significance preventing redrawing of the blood samples from the patients.