Laminations and microgranule formation in pediatric glomerular basement membranes.

Glomerular basement membrane (GBM) splitting, laminations, and microgranular formation are classically encountered with Alport disease, but can be found in other glomerular diseases. We found moderate to marked GBM laminations/microgranular formations in 51 of 724 (7%) pediatric diagnostic renal biopsies. These included 12 Alport disease, 12 thin basement membrane disease (TBM), 13 mesangial hypercellularity (MH), 6 focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and 8 other diseases.

Infections in a Children's Hospital autopsy population.

We reviewed our Children's Hospital autopsies (1986-2009, 3-8 year groups) to determine the contribution of infections/inflammation to death and trends over time. Infections were categorized as (1) underlying cause of death, (2) mechanism of death complicating another underlying cause of death, (3) contributing (4) agonal or (5) incidental. Of 608 autopsies (44% of deaths), 401 had 691 infections (66%, 1.