2.1 Subjects
Fouty children with INS (28 males and 12 females; median age: 38 months;
age range: 22-55 months) were enrolled in this study. The study
participants were recruited from the inpatient pediatric population at
Shenzhen Children’s Hospital between the dates of September 2015 and
October 2016. These children met all the inclusion criteria: 1) The
diagnostic criteria for INS prepared by 2010 evidence-based diagnosis
and treatment guidelines for common kidney diseases in pediatrics in
China ; 2) All of them were hormone-sensitive children, that is,
children with negative urine protein within 4 weeks of treatment with
sufficient hormones and no other immunosuppressants; 3) No secondary
kidney disease (such as secondary nephrotic syndrome, nephrotic
nephrotic syndrome or congenital kidney disease etc.); 4) No other
systemic viscera syndrome; 5) Signed informed consent. According to the
condition, they were divided into first-onset group (20 cases, atopic
constitution, 6 cases, 14 cases of non-atopic constitution) and
remission group (20 cases, atopic constitution, 6 cases, non-atopic
constitution 14 cases). Defined as children with nephrotic syndrome for
the first time, the selection criteria for remission patients were
children with kidney disease who had stopped hormones for more than 4
weeks and had normal blood biochemical and urine tests. Tweety
age-similar matched children (11 males and 9 females; median age: 31.3
months; age range: 18-112 months) who came to our hospital for physical
examination during the same period were enrolled in the healthy controls
(Ctrl). Informed consent was obtained from the parents of all patients
as a condition of study enrollment, and the study was carried out with
pre-approval by the local Medical Ethics Committee.