Clinical application of Tacrolimus to infant steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome

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Objective To analyze the peculiarity of infants steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) and to assess the efficacy, side-effect and relapse of various of Tacrolimus prescribed in infants SRNS. Methods A total of 76 case of infant SRNS from August 2012 to August 2015 in Guangzhou Weman and Children′s Medical Center grouped into oral Tacrolimus(TAC group), Methyprenisolone pulse therapy (MP group) and Methyprenisolong combined Cyclophosphamide(CTX) pulse therapy(MP+ CTX group), were observed for 1 year, and the urine protein excretion, renal function(CCr), blood glucose(BG), urine retinal-binding-protein(URBP), lymphocyte count etc.were recorded and the situation of infection and relapse regularly were monitored regularly.The data were retrospectively analyzed by the statistical method. Results All SRNS children underwent kidney biopsy, and 36 cases of minimal change disease, 32 cases of mesangial proliferative glomerulonephritis and 8 cases of focal segmental glome-rulosclerosis were contained in the patients.The pathological constituent ratios were not obviously different among these 3 groups.By 6-month follow-up, the complete remission ratio of TAC group was 63.64%, the total remission ratio was 95.45%, which were remarkably higher than those of MP group(26.09%, 60.87%) and MP+ CTX group(41.94%, 74.19%); the urine protein excretion of TAC group [(7.8±8.6) mg/(kg·d)] was distinctly lower than that of pretreatment and lower than that of MP group[(144.2±118.3) mg/(kg·d)], and lower than that of MP+ CTX group[(91.3±87.4) mg/(kg·d)], and the difference was significant(F=22.69, P<0.05). The remission time of TAC group was about 2 months, that of other two groups was about 3 months.By 1-year follow-up, the lymphocyte counts including total T-cell(CD3+ ), the helper T-cell(CD4+ ) and the inhibited T-cell(CD8+ ) of TAC group decreased obviously(all P<0.01), which were extremely lower than those of the MP group and MP+ CTX group, and there were significant differences(all P<0.05). By 1-year follow-up, the person-time of infection existed superior to the other 2 groups, TAC group was compared with MP plus group, the rank sum was 348.5(U=-3.69, P<0.01); compared with MP+ CTX plus group, the rank sum was 369.5(U=-4.18, P<0.01). During the observation the URBP of TAC group was distinctly higher than that of the MP group and the MP+ CTX group [(13.77±19.19) mg/L vs.(2.50±1.77) mg/L, (2.06±3.63) mg/L], and the differences were significant(t=3.16, 2.99, all P<0.05); the TAC group with BG and CCr maintained stably. Conclusions Tacrolimus shows its own advantages of more reliable effect and less side-effect in the infants with SRNS over MP therapy and MP combined CTX therapy, but it could not lessen the recurrence of the disease, and its long-term prognosis is still not very clear. Key words: Tacrolimus; Infant; Steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome