Vitamin D metabolites in childhood nephrotic syndrome.

We measured serum levels of total and ionised calcium, phosphate, intact parathyroid hormone, 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] and the vitamin D binding protein (DBP) in 14 children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome and 10 healthy, age-matched controls. In all nephrotics serum DBP levels were below the normal range. Serum 25(OH)D was below 7 ng/ml in 10 of 14 nephrotic children and in the low normal range in the remaining 4 patients.

Disseminated BCG in HIV infection.

A boy, born to a mother with AIDS related complex, was immunised with BCG on the 10th day of life. At the age of 4 months he presented with a local enlarged lymph node, fever, hypotonia, and diarrhoea. Mycobacterium bovis, BCG strain, was grown from the lymph node and cerebrospinal fluid; this proved dissemination.