Renal involvement in sarcoidosis: histological patterns and prognosis, an Italian survey.

Background: Granulomatous interstitial nephritis in sarcoidosis (sGIN) is generally clinically silent, but in <1% causes acute kidney injury (AKI).

Methods: This Italian multicentric retrospective study included 39 sarcoidosis-patients with renal involvement at renal biopsy: 31 sGIN-AKI, 5 with other patterns (No-sGIN-AKI), 3 with nephrotic proteinuria. We investigate the predictive value of clinical features, laboratory, radiological parameters and histological patterns regarding steroid response.

An enigmatic case of IgG4-related nephropathy and an updated review of the literature.

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is still an underestimated disorder which affects multiple organs, and its recognition as a distinct clinical disease has been only proved in the recent decades. The renal involvement has been documented in approximately 15% of patients with IgG4-RD, and the typical manifestation is a tubulo-interstitial nephritis. The main histological findings in IgG4-RD are typically a dense tissue infiltration of IgG4-positive plasma cells, storiform fibrosis, obliterative phlebitis, and frequently elevated IgG4 serum levels.

Renal transplants from older deceased donors: Is pre-implantation biopsy useful? A monocentric observational clinical study.

Aim: To compare survival of kidney transplants from deceased extended criteria donors (ECD) according to: (1) donor graft histological score; and (2) allocation of high score grafts either to single (SKT) or dual (DKT) transplant.

Methods: Renal biopsy was performed as part of either a newly adopted DKT protocol, or of surveillance protocol in the past. A total 185 ECD graft recipients were categorized according to pre-implantation graft biopsy into 3 groups: SKT with graft score 1 to 4 [SKT, = 102]; SKT with donor graft score 5 to 8 [SKT, = 30]; DKT with donor graft score 5 to 7 (DKT, = 53).

Splenomegaly and variceal bleeding in a ten-year-old HIV-infected girl with noncirrhotic portal hypertension.

Noncirrhotic portal hypertension is an uncommon liver disease of unknown origin, increasingly described in HIV-infected adults. Prolonged antiretroviral exposure, in particular to didanosine, and thrombophilic predisposition have been suggested as potential pathogenic factors. Data are limited in children.

Peginterferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin for naïve patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C: a randomized controlled trial.

Background/aims: We assessed the effectiveness and safety of an induction dose of peginterferon alfa-2b (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin for initial treatment of patients with genotype 1 chronic HCV infection in a randomized, controlled, multicenter trial.

Methods: Three hundred and eleven naïve patients infected with genotype 1 and chronic hepatitis were randomly assigned to 48-week treatment with PEG-IFN once weekly (80-100 micrograms depending on body weight for 8 weeks, followed by 50 micrograms for the next 40 weeks), or standard interferon alfa-2b (IFN) 6 million units on alternate days, both in combination with ribavirin (1000-1200 mg/day).

Results: PEG-IFN plus ribavirin significantly increased sustained virological response (SVR) compared with IFN plus ribavirin (41.