This study investigated the clinical characteristics and kidney outcomes of childhood-onset lupus nephritis (LN), and risk factors associated with prognosis. Methods: We enrolled 216 patients with histologically diagnosed LN during childhood. The Korean Society of Pediatric Nephrology organized a retrospective cohort study of childhood-onset LN in 13 major pediatric nephrology centers in South Korea. Results: The mean age at kidney biopsy was 13.2 ± 3.22 years. The main forms of presentation were nephrotic syndrome and/or hematuria in 152 patients (70.4%), and the most common histological finding was World Health Organization (WHO) class IV in 138 patients (63.9%), followed by WHO class III in 34 patients (15.7%). In the outcome analysis, the mean follow-up period of the patients was 7.8 ± 5.11 years. At last follow-up, 32 patients (14.8%) developed advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). Male sex and failure to achieve remission at 12 months of treatment were significant risk factors for developing advanced CKD (hazard ratio of 2.57 and 2.29, respectively). Conclusion: Our study demonstrated the clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes of patients with childhood-onset LN. Male sex and failure to achieve remission in the first year of treatment were predictive of advanced CKD. Therefore, prompt awareness and close monitoring of these high-risk patients are needed, which may further improve the prognosis of children with LN.

Thyroid cancers are commonly diagnosed worldwide with a continuously increasing incident rate. The ultrasonography is the gold standard method for triaging thyroid nodules to biopsy. Although it has successfully triaged cancerous nodules, many benign nodules also have been triaged to be taken an invasive biopsy, which leads to the overdiagnosing issue. Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging biomedical imaging technique that can provide molecular functional information of biological tissues. Recently, there have been trials to investigate thyroid nodules by using clinically relevant photoacoustic imaging systems. In this review, the principles and applications of the photoacoustic imaging systems for analyzing thyroid nodules are overviewed. Although this technique still has a lot of ways to go for clinical translation, its initial results show great potential to be used for triaging thyroid nodules in vivo.

C1q nephropathy is a rare glomerulopathy that typically presents with nephrotic syndrome in children. Treatment with immunosuppressive agents renders patients vulnerable to infection and its complications. Gastroenteritis is common in children, and rotavirus is a leading cause. Extraintestinal manifestations of rotavirus have recently been reported; however, there is a paucity of cases exploring the involvement of a rotavirus on the respiratory system. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a rapid onset respiratory failure characterized by noncardiogenic pulmonary edema and hypoxemia. Causes of ARDS include sepsis, pneumonia, pancreatitis, aspiration, and trauma. In this paper, we report a case of ARDS after rotavirus infection in a child with C1q nephropathy who had been treated with immunosuppressive agents.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD)-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD) is a common complication of CKD, often accompanied by extra-skeletal calcification in adult patients. As increased vascular calcification is predicted to increase cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, the revised Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes guidelines recommend avoiding calcium-containing phosphate chelators. However, extra-skeletal calcification is less commonly noticed in pediatric patients. Here, we report our experience of such a complication in pediatric patients receiving maintenance peritoneal dialysis. Extra-skeletal calcification was noticed at the corneas, pelvic cavity, and soft tissues of the lower leg in 4 out of 32 patients on maintenance peritoneal dialysis. These patients experienced the aggravation of extra-skeletal calcifications during peritoneal dialysis, and 2 of them underwent excisional operations. It is required to monitor extra-skeletal calcifications in children on kidney replacement therapy.

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a hybrid biomedical imaging method that exploits both acoustical Epub ahead of print and optical properties and can provide both functional and structural information. Therefore, PA imaging can complement other imaging methods, such as ultrasound imaging, fluorescence imaging, optical coherence tomography, and multi-photon microscopy. This article reviews techniques that integrate PA with the above imaging methods and describes their applications.
Complement System Proteins ; Microscopy ; Multimodal Imaging* ; Optical Imaging ; Tomography, Optical Coherence ; Ultrasonography