Renal involvement at diagnosis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute leukemia is the most common type of cancer in pediatric patients. This type of cancer accounts for a third of all childhood cancer cases. More than half of pediatric acute leukemia patients show signs and symptoms such as hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, pallor, fever and bruising at the time of diagnosis. In early stages of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), nephromegaly and other renal manifestations such as high blood pressure (HBP) and renal failure are uncommon, although renal infiltration and nephromegaly are common in advanced-stage pediatric patients. This is a retrospective case review with a critical appraisal of the existing evidence from the literature. We present a clinical case of a child with HBP associated with bilateral nephromegaly which resolved after chemotherapy treatment. This patient presented with HBP that required pharmacological treatment, likely owing to nephromegaly. All HBP secondary causes were rejected. Nephromegaly was resolved after chemotherapy treatment, and antihypertensive medication was discontinued. Nephromegaly and HBP are rare manifestations of ALL debut in pediatrics. The present case report illustrates this unusual combination and Suggests clinicians to consider malignancy as its causal factor, especially if the symptoms are accompanied by other suggestive extrarenal manifestations.

Growth characterization in a cohort of renal allograft recipients.

INTRODUCTION: Growth retardation is a common problem in children with CKD. This study aims to describe growth, prevalence of short stature before RTx, catch-up growth after RTx, and associated factors. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 74 renal allograft recipients who underwent RTx at Fundación Cardioinfantil, Colombia, between January 2008 and September 2016 with follow-up for 2 years afterwards. Pre-RTx Height_SDS and demographic characteristics were compared between children with normal and short stature. Post-RTx Height_SDS at 1 and 2 years post-RTx and FAH, when available, were retrieved. Children were classified into catch-up growth and no catch-up growth groups depending on whether or not Height_SDS increased ≥0.5 per year within the first 2 years post-RTx. Possible associated factors were compared. RESULTS: Seventy-four patients were included. Mean age at RTx was 11 ± 4.0 years, and 43.2% (32/74) were females. Mean Height_SDS for the entire study population at pre-RTx was -2.8 ± 1.5. Before RTx, 68.9% (51/74) had short stature, and 44.6% (33/74) had severe short stature. 37.2% presented catch-up growth post-RTx. Time on dialysis was associated with short pre-RTx stature (OR 1.66; 95% CI [1.15-2.39]; P = .006) and catch-up growth (OR 2.15; 95% CI [1.15-3.99]; P = .016). 44.59% (33/74) reached FAH, and 48.4% (16/33) presented short FAH. CONCLUSIONS: Growth continues to be suboptimal after RTx. Given that pre-RTx height is a significantly associated factor, it is important to plan early interventions in terms of growth improvement in these children.

Characterization and Etiopathogenic Approach of Pediatric Renal Biopsy Patients in a Colombian Medical Center from 2007-2017.

INTRODUCTION: Renal biopsy is the principal instrument to evaluate the diagnosis and prognosis of children with kidney disease. There are relatively few studies establishing epidemiology of its findings in the pediatric population. METHODS: A descriptive study was conducted to describe characteristics of pediatric patients who had undergone a renal biopsy over the last 10 years in a national reference center, trying to accomplish an etiopathogenic approach of biopsy findings. RESULTS: 241 patients were included. Most frequent indications were nephrotic syndrome (34.1%) and systemic disease with renal involvement (30.2%). The most prevalent biopsy diagnosis was glomerulonephritis (44%) and among these patients, glomerulonephritis mediated by immune complexes was the most frequent pathogenic type (90.5%). When the biopsy was indicated for proteinuria plus hematuria and systemic disease with renal involvement, the most frequent biopsy diagnosis was glomerulonephritis (60 and 85%, respectively). For isolated hematuria, the predominant biopsy diagnosis was inherited diseases of the glomerular basement membrane (70%) and for nephrotic syndrome, podocytopathy (82%). Glomerulonephritis was more frequent in patients older than 10 yrs (65%) and the rate of postbiopsy major complications was low (1.2%). CONCLUSION: Immune complex glomerulonephritis was the most frequent histological finding, differing from previous reports. To our knowledge this is the first description that classifies biopsy findings according to the probable pathogenic mechanism.

Regional citrate anticoagulation for continuous renal replacement therapy in children.

BACKGROUND: Anticoagulation of the continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) circuit is an important technical aspect of this medical procedure. Most studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of citrate use have been carried out in adults, and little evidence is available for the pediatric patient population. The aim of this study was to compare regional citrate anticoagulation versus systemic heparin anticoagulation in terms of the lifetime of hemofilters in a pediatric population receiving CRRT at a pediatric center in Bogota, Colombia. METHODS: This was an analytical, observational, retrospective cohort study in which we assessed the survival of 150 hemofilters (citrate group 80 hemofilters, heparin group 70 hemofilters) used in a total of 3442 hours of CCRT (citrate group 2248 h, heparin group 1194 h). Hemofilter survival was estimated beginning at placement and continuing until filter replacement due to clotting or high trans-membrane pressures. RESULTS: Hemofilter survival was higher in the citrate group than in the heparin group (72 vs. 18 h; p <0.0001). Bivariate analysis showed that the hemofilter coagulation risk was significantly increased when heparin was used, regardless of hemofilter size and pump flow (hazard ratio 3.70, standard error 0.82, 95% confidence interval 2.39-5.72; p <0.00001). CONCLUSIONS: Regional citrate anticoagulation could be more effective than heparin systemic anticoagulation in terms of prolonging the hemofilter lifetime in patients with acute renal injury who require CRRT.