Hypertension in Pregnancy: Defining Blood Pressure Goals and the Value of Biomarkers for Preeclampsia

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy have been the cause of much clinical dilemma, affecting up to 10 % of all pregnancies. The precise blood pressure to achieve in a pregnant woman is usually a battle between minimizing end organ damage to the mother and providing adequate perfusion to the placenta and the fetus. This predicament is becoming more, not less, frequent as maternal ages increase in high resource nations. Biomarkers to predict preeclampsia, a subcategory of hypertension in pregnancy, have always been elusive. The discovery of angiogenic factors relevant to preeclampsia in the last decade, however, has propelled much needed research, both in the basic science and clinical arenas. In this review, we summarize the latest clinical studies and international guidelines on blood pressure goals in pregnancy, and discuss the most promising of biomarkers to predict or diagnose preeclampsia.     

Association of Helicobacter pylori with Chronic Kidney Diseases: A Meta-Analysis

Digestive Diseases and Sciences - The reported risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection is conflicting. This meta-analysis was conducted to summarize all...     

Hepatitis C infection and renal cell carcinoma:A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM To investigate the association between hepatitis C virus(HCV) infection and risk of renal cell carcinoma(RCC).METHODS A literature search was performed from inception until February 2016.Studies that reported relative risks,odd ratios,hazard ratios or standardized incidence ratio comparing the risk of RCC among HCV-infected participants vs those without HCV infection were included.Participants without HCV infection were used as comparators.Pooled odds ratios and 95%CI were calculated using a random-effect,generic inverse variance method.RESULTS Seven observational studies were with 196826 patients were included in the analysis to assess the risk of RCC in patients with HCV.A significantly increased risk of RCC among participants with HCV infection was found with a pooled RR of 1.86(95%CI:1.11-3.11).The association between RCC and HCV was marginally insignificant after a sensitivity analysis limited only to studies with adjusted analysis,with a pooled RR of 1.50(95%CI:0.93-2.42).CONCLUSION Our study demonstrated a potential association between HCV infection and RCC.Further studies of RCC surveillance in patients with HCV are required.     

Renal manifestations of hepatitis E among immunocompetent and solid organ transplant recipients

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infections are generally self-limited. Rare cases of hepatitis E induced fulminant liver failure requiring liver transplantation are reported in the literature. Even though HEV infection is generally encountered among developing countries, a recent uptrend is reported in developed countries. Consumption of unprocessed meat and zoonosis are considered to be the likely transmission modalities in developed countries. Renal involvement of HEV generally holds a benign and self-limited course. Although rare cases of cryoglobulinemia are reported in immunocompetent patients, glomerular manifestations of HEV infection are frequently encountered in immunocompromised and solid organ transplant recipients. The spectrum of renal manifestations of HEV infection include pre-renal failure, glomerular disorders, tubular and interstitial injury. Kidney biopsy is the gold standard diagnostic test that confirms the pattern of injury. Management predominantly includes conservative approach. Reduction of immunosuppressive medications and ribavirin (for 3-6 mo) is considered among patients with solid organ transplants. Here we review the clinical course, pathogenesis, renal manifestations, and management of HEV among immunocompetent and solid organ transplant recipients.     

Urine biomarkers informative of human kidney allograft rejection and tolerance

We developed urinary cell messenger RNA (mRNA) profiling to monitor in vivo status of human kidney allografts based on our conceptualization that the kidney allograft may function as an in vivo flow cell sorter allowing access of graft infiltrating cells to the glomerular ultrafiltrate and that interrogation of urinary cells is informative of allograft status. For the profiling urinary cells, we developed a two-step preamplification enhanced real-time quantitative PCR (RT-QPCR) assays with a customized amplicon; preamplification compensating for the low RNA yield from urine and the customized amplicon facilitating absolute quantification of mRNA and overcoming the inherent limitations of relative quantification widely used in RT-QPCR assays. Herein, we review our discovery and validation of urinary cell mRNAs as noninvasive biomarkers prognostic and diagnostic of acute cellular rejection (ACR) in kidney allografts. We summarize our results reflecting the utility of urinary cell mRNA profiling for predicting reversal of ACR with anti-rejection therapy; differential diagnosis of kidney allograft dysfunction; and noninvasive diagnosis and prognosis of BK virus nephropathy. Messenger RNA profiles associated with human kidney allograft tolerance are also summarized in this review. Altogether, data supporting the idea that urinary cell mRNA profiles are informative of kidney allograft status and tolerance are reviewed in this report.