title: Indications and results of renal biopsy in children: a 10-year review from a single center in Serbia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study was conducted to retrospectively investigate the indications for renal biopsy in native kidneys and to analyze pathological findings in the last 10 years in a single tertiary pediatric hospital in Serbia.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients who underwent renal biopsy at our hospital between 2001 and 2010 were included in the present study. Renal biopsy was performed under fluoroscopy with a biopsy gun. All renal biopsies were studied under light and immunofluorescent microscopy, while electron microscopy was rarely performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study group included 150 patients (56% female) who underwent 158 percutaneous native kidney biopsies. Median age was 11.5 years (range 0.2-20 years). The most frequent indications for renal biopsy were nephrotic syndrome (32.9%), asymptomatic hematuria (23.4%), urinary abnormalities in systemic diseases (15.8%) and proteinuria (11.4%). Primary glomerulonephritis (GN) was the most common finding (57.4%), followed by secondary GN (15.5%) and tubulointerstitial diseases (4.5%). According to histopathological diagnosis, the most common causes of primary GN were focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (20.9%), mesangioproliferative GN (14.6%), IgA nephropathy (8.9%) and minimal change disease (13%). Lupus nephritis (6%) and Henoch-Schönlein nephritis (4%) were the most common secondary glomerular diseases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The epidemiology of glomerular disease in our single-center report is similar to that in data from adjacent Croatia and Greece. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis was the dominant histopathological finding, followed by mesangioproliferative GN and IgA nephropathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, University Children's Hospital, Belgrade, Serbia. dusanparipovic73@gmail.com
authors.forename: Dušan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paripović
authors.forename: Mirjana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kostić
authors.forename: Divna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kruščić
authors.forename: Brankica
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spasojević
authors.forename: Gordana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lomić
authors.forename: Jasmina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marković-Lipkovski
authors.forename: Gordana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Basta-Jovanović
authors.forename: Željko
authors.initials: Ž
authors.lastname: Smoljanić
authors.forename: Amira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Peco-Antić
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055771:Serbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult