Novel approach to assess sarcopenia in children with inflammatory bowel disease.

Introduction: Sarcopenia is associated with poor clinical outcomes in chronic diseases. Our study aimed to characterize body composition (BC) parameters in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and compare skeletal muscle mass (SMM) parameters with the healthy pediatric population.

Methods: BC of healthy controls (HC) and of patients with IBD were measured via multifrequency bioelectrical impedance (InBody 720 device) in a cross-sectional manner.

How to define and assess the clinically significant causes of hematuria in childhood.

Given the wide diversity of causes of hematuria, ranging from simple urinary tract infections with rapid recovery to severe glomerulonephritis with fast decline in kidney function, it is essential to recognize the underlying disease. The first objective of the assessment is to determine whether the cause of the hematuria is medically significant. The combination of hematuria with proteinuria, the presence of hypertension, or worsening kidney function can represent signs of progressive kidney disease.

Evaluation of a child with suspected nephrolithiasis.

Purpose Of Review: As the incidence of nephrolithiasis in children doubles every 10 years it is becoming a common disease associated with significant morbidity along with considerable economic burden worldwide. The aim of this review is to summarize current data on the epidemiology and causes of renal stones in children and to provide a frame for the first clinical evaluation of a child with suspected nephrolithiasis.

Recent Findings: Dietary and environmental factors are the driving force of changing epidemiology.

Elevated Systemic Pentraxin-3 Is Associated With Complement Consumption in the Acute Phase of Thrombotic Microangiopathies.

Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) and C-reactive protein (CRP) have been shown to regulate complement activation , but their role has not been investigated in complement consumption . Thrombotic microangiopathies (TMA) are often accompanied by complement overactivation and consumption, therefore we analyzed the relation of the systemic pentraxin levels to the complement profile, laboratory parameters and clinical outcome of TMA patients. We determined the PTX3 and CRP levels, complement factor and activation product concentrations in blood samples of 171 subjects with the diagnosis of typical hemolytic uremic syndrome (STEC-HUS) ( = 34), atypical HUS (aHUS) ( = 44), secondary TMA ( = 63), thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) ( = 30) and 69 age-matched healthy individuals.

Ambulatory arterial stiffness index in children after kidney transplantation.

Given the increase in CV morbidity after RTx and the scarcity of CV events in pediatrics, surrogate markers should be assessed to characterize CV damage in this population. AASI is a marker of arterial stiffness in adults, predicting cardio- and cerebrovascular morbidity. Our aim was to assess the determinants of AASI in RTx children (n = 54, 15.

Cardiovascular risk assessment in children with chronic kidney disease.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major factor contributing to cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality with the highest risk in patients on dialysis. An estimation of CV risk is important not only to identify potential modifiable risk factors but also to evaluate the effect of treatments aimed to reduce the risk. Non-invasive methods of measuring vascular changes and circulating biomarkers are available to assess the presence and severity of cardiovascular damage.

Cardiovascular risk assessment in children following kidney transplantation.

CV diseases are the leading cause of death among patients with ESRD. RTX decreases the CV risk; however, it still remains definitely higher than that of the general population. Large multicenter and longitudinal studies are difficult to perform and hard end-points of CV events are usually missing among pediatric population.

Reference values of pulse wave velocity in healthy children and teenagers.

Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity is an established method for characterizing aortic stiffness, an individual predictor of cardiovascular mortality in adults. Normal pulse wave velocity values for the pediatric population derived from a large data collection have yet to be available. The aim of this study was to create a reference database and to characterize the factors determining pulse wave velocity in children and teenagers.