Patients with primary focal segmental glomerulosclerosis with detectable urinary CD80 are more similar to patients with minimal change disease in clinicopathological features

BACKGROUND

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is an important cause of refractory nephrotic syndrome (NS) in children and adults. Urinary CD80 is elevated in some patients with primary FSGS, however, its clinical value is not fully clarified. This study aims to evaluate the clinical and pathological significance of urinary CD80 in patients with primary FSGS.

METHODS

Sixty-one adult patients with biopsy-proven primary FSGS, with standard treatment and long-term follow up, were enrolled retrospectively. Urinary CD80, on the day of kidney biopsy, was measured using commercial ELISA kits and adjusted by urinary creatinine excretion. Their associations with clinical and pathological parameters were investigated.

RESULTS

Urinary CD80 was detectable in 30/61 (49.2%) patients, who presented with a higher level of proteinuria (10.7 vs. 5.8 g/24h; p = 0.01), a lower level of serum albumin (19.3 ± 3.9 vs. 24.2 ± 8.2 g/L; p = 0.005), a higher prevalence of hematuria (70.0 vs. 38.7%; p = 0.01), and showed a lower percentage of segmental glomerulosclerosis lesion [4.8 (3.7-14.0) vs. 9.1 (5.6-21.1) %; p = 0.06]. The cumulative relapse rate was remarkably high in these patients (log-rank, p = 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified that the elevated urinary CD80 was an independent risk factor for steroid-dependent NS (OR 8.81, 95% CI 1.41-54.89; p = 0.02) and relapse (HR, 2.87; 95% CI 1.29-6.38; p = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The elevated urinary CD80 is associated with mild pathological change and steroid-dependent cases of primary FSGS adults, which indicates these patients are more similar to minimal change disease (MCD) in clinicopathological features.

Comparison of three spot proteinuria measurements for pediatric nephrotic syndrome: based on the International pediatric Nephrology Association 2022 Guidelines

BACKGROUND

Pediatric nephrotic syndrome (NS) requires routine proteinuria monitoring, which is costly and affects patients' quality of life. The gold-standard 24-h urine protein (UP) measurement is challenging in children, and first-morning urine collection requires specific conditions, making it difficult in outpatient settings. Studies have reported comparability of second or random morning urine sample to the first-morning specimen. This study aimed to compare outcomes of random morning proteinuria measurements to 24-h UP and the roles of the urinary protein creatinine ratio (UPCR) and dipstick tests in pediatric NS, based on International Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA) 2022 Guidelines.

METHOD

Twenty-four-hour and morning urine samples were collected from 92 pediatric NS patients. These were subjected to automated analyses for 24-h UP, UPCR, and semi-automated dipstick analysis. A blinded doctor performed manual dipstick analysis.

RESULTS

UPCR had a stronger correlation with 24-h UP than with automated and manual urine dipstick tests. UPCR had the highest sensitivity and specificity for predicting no remission/relapse and high sensitivity but low specificity for complete remission. The optimal UPCR cutoff for remission was 0.44 mg/mg and for no remission/relapse was 2.08 mg/mg. Automated and manual dipstick tests demonstrated limited sensitivity but high specificity and similar AUC values for remission/relapse.

CONCLUSION

UPCR was sensitive and specific for diagnosing no remission/relapse and sensitive but not specific for detecting remission. Manual and automated urine dipstick tests were comparable for remission and no remission/relapse detection. This study supports the IPNA 2022 Guidelines, as 2 mg/mg was the optimal UPCR cutoff for no remission/relapse, while for remission the optimal cutoff was 0.4 mg/mg.

Necrotizing Fasciitis: A Side Effect of Rituximab Administration in Steroid-Dependent Nephrotic Syndrome

Steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS) is a common type of childhood nephrotic syndrome. Remission following steroid therapy is achieved in 80-90% of the patients, while the remainder show steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS). Rituximab is an anti-CD20 chimeric monoclonal antibody with proven therapeutic effects in several diseases and has been used with great success in the treatment of NS since its discovery. We report a case of a 4-year-old girl diagnosed with SDNS at the age of 3. As treatment with steroids, enalapril, and mycophenolate failed to produce complete remission, rituximab was initiated, and remission was successfully achieved after administration of the first dose. Due to this response, rituximab therapy was continued; however, a day after being admitted to the nephrology ward for the second dose, she started to develop a high fever, which reached up to 40°C. In addition, she also displayed symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection and an ulcerated wound on her left cheek. The patient became drowsy with reactive pupils, cold peripheries, and weak peripheral pulses. The capillary refill time was prolonged to 3-4 seconds and it was decided to withhold the second dose of rituximab. The patient was shifted to the PICU as a case of septic shock secondary to facial cellulitis and started on inotropes (epinephrine and norepinephrine), meropenem, vancomycin, and hydrocortisone 15 mg. Thereafter, surgical debridement of the wound was carried out. The patient remained in remission with regard to nephrotic syndrome and was discharged in a healthy condition. In conclusion, rituximab used in conjunction with steroids and other immunosuppressants may increase the risk of serious infections like necrotizing fasciitis (NF). Further studies are needed to explore the relationship between rituximab and NF.

The outcome of rituximab in treating steroid dependent nephrotic syndrome.: Histopathology and immunosuppressive drugs as predicting factors

OBJECTIVES

To present our experience of treating steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS) in children with repeated doses of rituximab (RTX) with a relatively long follow-up, and to discuss the role of the histopathology type and previous immune-suppressor (IS) drugs on the outcome of these patients.

METHODS

The patients included in this prospective study were children with SDNS who were in remission on a high-dose steroid or with additional IS drugs. All patients underwent renal biopsy before RTX treatment. Intravenous RTX was administered monthly at 375 mg/m² for 4 doses. Response to treatment was defined as maintaining remission with no steroid-sparing agents or prednisone for one year.

RESULTS

Seventeen (14 males) patients were enrolled. Approximately 76% had minimal change disease (MCD) and 3 (18%) patients had immunoglobulin M (IgM) nephropathy. Approximately 85% of MCD and 33% of IgM nephropathy showed complete response to RTX.

CONCLUSION

Compared to other IS used to treat SDNS, RTX showed a significant decrease in relapse rate with fewer side effects. The dose and interval should be modified according to the patient's characteristics, such as medical history, pathology type, and previous IS agents.

Steroid sensitive acute GVHD, but not steroid dependent or steroid resistant, results in similar infection risk as no GVHD following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation

Patients with acute GVHD (aGVHD) have an increased risk for infectious complications after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), but the risk according to response to therapy is not well studied. We performed a retrospective analysis of the infectious complications for 1 year following allogeneic HCT at the University of Minnesota for 1143 pediatric and adult patients with and without aGVHD. Patients with aGVHD were classified into treatment response groups based on response to corticosteroids as first-line therapy: steroid sensitive (SS, n=114), steroid resistant (SR, n=103) and steroid dependent (SD, n=168) aGVHD. We observed that the cumulative incidence and density of infections for patients with SS aGVHD parallels those having no GVHD. Infection density (the number of infections that occurred per 100 days at risk) was greater for aGVHD than patients with no GVHD over both early and later post-transplant periods. For GVHD patients, among the infections developed from onset of aGVHD through 80 days of treatment, and until 1-year following transplantation, SS and SD patients had fewer bacterial and viral infections than SR patients. The overlap of non-relapse mortality between SS and SD GVHD patients is a function of SD GVHD being responsive to steroid therapy, even if continued therapy is required. In summary, while valid goals may include reducing unneeded antibacterial antibiotic therapy and preserving microbiome diversity, these data suggest that anti-infective therapy is justified by the density of infections observed during active GVHD treatment.

The safety and efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil in children and adolescents with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome: a single-centre study

Background

Steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS) patients experience frequent relapse or adverse effects on long-term treatment with steroids or cyclophosphamide. This study assessed the efficacy and side effect profile of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) therapy in children with nephrotic syndrome in our population.

Methods

A retrospective study was performed on children with SDNS who were on MMF therapy for a minimum period of 1 year, and were on regular follow-up in the Department of Nephrology at the Institute of Child Health and hospital for children attached to Madras Medical College.

Results

The study included 87 patients, with a male:female ratio of 2:1. The median age at diagnosis of nephrotic syndrome was 3 years [95% confidence interval (CI): 1–8 years], which was found to be a statistically significant risk factor for MMF failure. The median duration of follow-up after initiation of MMF therapy was 3 years and 3 months (95% CI: 1 year and 3 months to 6 years and 6 months). At initial evaluation, 31 (36%) patients presented with SDNS while the remaining had frequently relapsing nephrotic syndrome progressing to SDNS. Intravenous cyclophosphamide was used as first-line therapy in 82 patients, of whom 24 patients had persistent proteinuria while the remaining 58 had attained remission for a median duration of 6 months. The median duration of treatment with MMF was 2 years and 6 months (95% CI: 1 year and 3 months to 4 years and 6 months). MMF was used at a mean dose of 28.5 mg/kg. Seventy-two (83%) patients were MMF-sensitive, and these patients had a reduction in mean prednisolone dose from 1.28 to 0.35 mg/kg (P < 0.05). Among the MMF-sensitive patients, 31 had stopped MMF after a minimum period of 2 years, following which they had a median remission period of 5 months (95% CI: 1–8 months). MMF failure occurred in 15 (17%) patients. Adverse events were documented in 19 (22%) patients.

Conclusions

Continuous MMF therapy achieved remission in 83% of patients. MMF was well tolerated in the study population and discontinuation of MMF resulted in 100% relapse.

Long-interval Cytapheresis as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy Leading to Dosage Reduction and Discontinuation of Steroids in Steroid-dependent Ulcerative Colitis

Objective This study was performed to confirm the efficacy of long-interval cytapheresis on steroid-dependent ulcerative colitis (UC). Methods To discontinue steroids in patients with steroid-dependent UC, we previously designed a novel regimen of cytapheresis (CAP), which we termed "long-interval cytapheresis (LI-CAP)", in which CAP was performed as one session every two or three weeks and continued during the whole period of tapering steroid dosage. In this study, we performed LI-CAP therapy 20 times (11 male and 9 female; mean age 41.8 years) between April 2010 and April 2015 for 14 patients with steroid-dependent UC. We evaluated the effectiveness of LI-CAP by examining the improvement in Lichtiger's clinical activity index (CAI), the rate of clinical remission, and the rate of steroid discontinuation. We further examined the rate of sustained steroid-free clinical remission at 6 and 12 months after LI-CAP in patients who successfully discontinued steroid-use after LI-CAP. The primary endpoint was the rate of discontinuation of steroids after LI-CAP. Results The mean CAI score before LI-CAP (7.550) significantly decreased to 1.65 after LI-CAP (p<0.0001). The rate of clinical remission after LI-CAP was 80%. The rate of steroid discontinuation after LI-CAP was 60.0%. The mean dose of daily prednisolone was significantly decreased after LI-CAP (2.30 mg) compared with that before therapy (17.30 mg) (p=0.0003). The rate of sustained steroid-free clinical remission after LI-CAP was 66.7% at 6 months and 66.7% at 12 months. Conclusion We confirmed that LI-CAP has therapeutic effects on reducing the dosage and discontinuing steroids in patients with steroid-dependent UC.

Rituximab treatment in adults with refractory minimal change disease or focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Rituximab (RTX) may benefit patients with glomerular disease who suffer from focal segmental glomerular sclerosis (FSGS) or minimal change disease (MCD). Here, we have described our experience treating 6 FSGS and 9 MCD patients with steroid-dependent/refractory nephrotic syndrome (NS) with RTX. Patients received RTX (375 mg/m2) intravenously on days 1, 8, 23, and 29. During a median follow-up of 8 months (range, 3-36 months) after RTX administration, all patients achieved complete or partial remission. Relapses decreased by approximately 30-fold compared with the year preceding RTX treatment, and an 89.27% reduction in proteinuria was observed. Furthermore, RTX treatment could decrease medical costs by 76.52% compared with the costs associated with the long-term use (for 12-13 months) of steroids and immunosuppressive drugs. In conclusion, RTX treatment was safe and effective for patients with refractory FSGS or MCD.

Multi-drug resistance-1 gene polymorphisms in nephrotic syndrome: impact on susceptibility and response to steroids

BACKGROUND

Role of multidrug resistance-1 (MDR-1) gene polymorphisms has not been clarified in nephrotic syndrome (NS). Additionally, researchers studied several genetic polymorphisms to explain their influence on different patients' responses to steroid; however the data were inconsistent. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association of MDR-1 gene polymorphisms [C1236T, G2677T/A, C3435T] and haplotypes with susceptibility to childhood nephrotic syndrome, and whether they influence steroid response.

METHODS

We detected MDR-1 gene polymorphisms using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in 138 NS patients and 140 age and sex matched healthy children.

RESULTS

The frequencies of MDR1 G2677T/A GT, GA, TT+AA genotypes or T allele, MDR1 C3435T TT genotype, and T allele genotype frequencies were significantly increased in NS group. While no significant differences were observed in distributions of C1236T genotypes or allele between NS patients and healthy children. Moreover, steroid non-responder NS patients had significantly higher frequencies of MDR1 G2677T/A GT, GA, and TT+AA genotypes than steroid responsive NS patients. We observed also that NS patients with age less than 6 years old had increased frequencies of MDR1 G2677T/A GT, GA, TT+AA genotypes or T allele MDR1 C3435T CT, TT genotypes and T allele. Interestingly the frequency of the TGC haplotype of MDR1 was lower in the initial steroid responders than in non-responders NS patients. On the contrary, there were no any association between the MDR1 haplotypes with NS susceptibility and they did not influence renal pathological findings.

CONCLUSION

Our data suggested that MDR1 C3435T or G2677T/A gene polymorphisms are risk factors of increased susceptibility, earlier onset of NS, and steroid resistance.

Role of antimetabolites in recalcitrant idiopathic orbital inflammatory syndrome

Background:

High-dose systemic steroids are the primary modality of treatment for idiopathic orbital inflammatory syndrome (IOIS). Occasionally patients experience a relapse of symptoms on tapering steroids or require large doses of steroid, predisposing them to the adverse effects of steroids.

Aim:

We present our experience with the management of three patients with recalcitrant IOIS, with immunosuppressive therapy, using antimetabolites.

Materials and Methods:

A retrospective review of the medical records of the patients being reported. Results: Two patients were treated with Methotrexate and one with Azathioprine for a duration of 6-24 months. Two patients were symptom-free three years after stopping the medication. One was doing well clinically with methotrexate therapy alone, when he was lost to follow-up after six months. No adverse effects of immunosuppressive therapy were encountered.

Conclusion:

High-dose systemic steroid therapy is the first-line treatment for IOIS, but in refractory or steroid-dependent cases, immunosuppressive therapy with antimetabolites is a safe and effective treatment alternative to steroids. However, treatment with antimetabolites warrants close monitoring for complications like bone marrow suppression and liver dysfunction, especially because long-term treatment is required.