Preterm birth ups nephrotic syndrome risk

There seems to be an inverse and significant correlation between gestational age and nephrotic syndrome (NS), with infants born earlier experiencing higher risks, a recent study has found.

The study included 78,651 preterm infants and 786,510 matched term controls, all of whom were born between 2004 and 2009 and followed until 2016. Fifty preterm infants and 285 term comparators ultimately developed NS, yielding corresponding incidence rates of 7.1 and 4.0 per 100,000 person-years.

Such a difference in incidence translated to a significantly elevated risk of NS among preterm infants, as estimated by Cox regression analysis (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.70, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.24–2.34).

Moreover, gestational age seemed to play a significant role in such risk elevation, such that the likelihood of NS was much stronger among those born ≤28 weeks (adjusted HR, 6.16, 95 percent CI, 2.28–16.65) than 29–31 (adjusted HR, 3.85, 95 percent CI, 1.62–9.13) and 32–36 weeks (adjusted HR, 1.48, 95 percent CI, 1.04–2.10; p_trend<0.001) of gestation.

Taking gestational age as a continuous variable revealed the same effect, with increasing gestational age significantly suppressing NS risk (adjusted HR, 0.90, 95 percent CI, 0.85–0.97).

“Our results showed that even after extended adjustments for sex, gestational age, urbanization, family income, parental age, and maternal comorbidities, preterm infants are still significantly more at risk for developing NS,” the researchers said. “Collectively, these results provide new information for future pathogenesis studies of NS.”