As an important category of rare diseases, rare genetic kidney diseases have many types. In recent years, their diagnosis, treatment, research and management strategies have made great progress. Continuously more new genes and mechanisms have been discovered, giving rise to new technologies and drugs for precision medicine and clinical applications. This article systematically analyzes rare diseases involving the urinary system listed in the catalog of rare diseases in China, gives examples to illustrate the research and management methods for the diagnosis and treatment of rare genetic kidney diseases, promotes clinical applications of new drugs by expanding physiological mechanisms, introduces the application of special blood purification in the field of critical rare diseases, and provides an outlook forward to the future prospects of precise diagnosis and treatment of rare kidney diseases in China.

Gliomas are the most common primary intracranial tumors in adults, among which high-grade glioma patients are characterized by short survival and poor prognosis. The diagnosis, treatment, evaluation of effective treatments, and prognosis prediction of high-grade gliomas are of great significance for improving patient survival. Conventional enhanced magnetic resonance imaging has deficiencies in delineating tumor extent, identifying tumor progression and treatment-related changes. Therefore, there is a broad consensus to incorporate amino acid PET, and ¹⁸F-FET PET inparticular, into the diagnostic and therapeutic process of high-grade gliomas. In this article, we review the new research progress of ¹⁸F-FET PET in the diagnosis and treatment of adult high-grade glioma in recent years.

We studied the patients diagnosed with X-linked hypophosphatemicrickets(XLH) and treated with burosumab in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2021 to December 2022. In addition, we described the clinical characteristics of the patients, the changes of clinical indexes before and after burosumab treatment, and the adverse drug reactions during treatment. We also evaluated the efficacy and safety of burosumab for XLH. The results showed that three children XLH patients and one adult XLH patients received burosumab treatment. After treatment, the serum phosphorus level of all patients increased; the serum phosphorus of 3 children patients increased above the lower limit of the reference value range; the serum alkaline phosphatase(ALP) of all patients was lower than that of before treatment; the serum ALP of one adult patient was close to the normal range after 2.5 years of treatment. One child patient showed small crystals in kidney through ultrasound 48 weeks after treatment; one child and one adult showed increased serum parathyroid hormone(PTH)level before treatment and serum PTH continued increasing after treatment. Finally, it may be concluded that burosumab increased serum phosphorus levels in XLH patients, kept the level relatively stable, and reduced serum ALP levels. No serious adverse reactions occurred during treatment, in order to provide reference for the use of burosumab in patients with XLH.

This article reported the diagnosis and treatment of a boy with Dent disease presenting with massive proteinuria.He was 3 years old and found to have massive proteinuria during routine physical examination without hypoalbuminemia, urine protein electrophoresis indicated mainly low molecular weight proteins, with hypercalciuria, and metabolic acidosis, no diabetes, no amino acid urine, and renal ultrasound showed no renal calcium deposition, He had no mental and physical developmental delay and no abnormal family history. Gene detection revealed one missense mutation in exon 15 of the OCRL1 gene, c.1477C > T (p.Arg493Trp). After the diagnosis was confirmed, restrictions in dietary intake of calcium, sodium, and oxalate was restricted and oral potassium citrate and hydrochlorothiazide was prescribed. During two months of follow-up, we observed a decrease in urinary calcium levels and normal renal function. This article aims to improve the understanding of this disease among physicians and provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of this disease through typical case report and review of previous literatures.

Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease that affects multiple organs and systems throughout the body. TSC-associated kidney disease is the leading cause of death in adult TSC patients. This article retrospectively analyzed the characteristics of one TSC-related renal giant angiomyolipoma(RAML)treated with surgery. The patient, 25 years old, was diagnosed with tuberous sclerosis complex in 2000 due to multiple maculopapular rashes on both cheeks. At a regular follow-up in July 2019, imaging examinations revealed a tumor in the left lower quadrant with a maximum cross-sectional area of 16 cm×7 cm. Genetic testing showed a loss of heterozygosity in the EX18_ 41 of TSC2. After the diagnosis was confirmed, open left partial nephrectomy was performed, during which multiple tumors were found on the kidney surface and the largest one was located on the ventral side with a diameter of approximately 20 cm. After the renal artery was occluded, kidney tumors were completely enucleate. Postoperative pathological confirmed the diagnosis of angiomyolipoma. This case provides a reference for the treatment of TSC-related renal giant hamartoma.

Rare kidney diseases constitute a significant factor leading to kidney failure with many having a hereditary basis. The incidence of inherited disorders contributing to adult chronic kidney disease is lower compared to that in children; however, up to 10% of adult patients with chronic kidney disease are affected by a single-gene pathogenic variant. Over the past decade, sequencing technologies have become widely utilized in clinical settings, undergoing continuous iterations and updates to enhance the diagnosis of rare kidney diseases. Simultaneously, the field confronts numerous challenges, particularly in the development and application of novel therapeutic drugs. In an era crucial development, China is set to publish rare disease catalogs in 2018 and 2023, a move that holds the promise of comprehensively advancing the diagnosis, treatment, and research of rare kidney diseases in the country.

Bartter syndrome (BS, OMIM #601678) is a rare inherited salt-losing tubulopathy characterized by hypokalemia metabolic alkalosis with secondary renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system activation. As reported, BS type 1 is generally presented prenatal and neonatal period, and symptoms usually appear before and after birth or in infancy, accompanied by severe salt loss, whilst kidney function remains mostly normal. In this study, we report a case of BS type 1 with childhood onset and proteinuria and renal impairment. The child was born preterm due to hyperamniotic fluid, but there were no apparent symptoms after birth until the age of 3 when the child began to present with polydipsia, polyuria and increased nocturnal uria. At the age of 5, she had elevated serum creatinine level and proteinuria. After admission, she was diagnosed with chronic tubulointerstitial disease and stage 2 chronic kidney disease(CKD). According to the chloride clearance test, the abnormal function of medullary thick ascending limb Henle′s loop, was confirmed and BS type 1 was diagnosed by gene sequencing. After active management of complications, kidney function of the child improved. In the long-term follow-up, the urinary protein amount of the child still increased, eGFR slowly decreased, and the child was currently in the CKD2 stage. Children with prenatal BS may not present typical clinical manifestations immediately after birth until the onset of relevant clinical symptoms in childhood. BS type 1 patients may have renal impairment, which needs to be identified in time. Clinical differentiation diagnosis between BS and Gitelman syndrome can be made by chloride clearance tests. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical to improve prognosis.

Non-muscle myosin heavy chain 9-related disease (MYH9-RD) is an autosomal dominant disease caused by the mutations of the MYH9 gene encoding the non-muscle mysoin heavy chain ⅡA and leads to abnormal accumulation of myosin in cells. These further causes functional disorders of the blood, eye, ear, kidney, and liver systems. MYH9-RD displays heterogeneous kidney involvement and outcomes, but doctors still lack understandings of the mechanism and treatment strategies, owing to difficulty of conducting renal biopsies. Here, we report a case of MYH9-RD with tail fragments heterozygous mutation, which renal pathology is presented as glomerular minor lesion. Moreover, we reviewed related relevant to strengthen clinical diagnosis and understanding of MYH9-RD.