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Objective:To assess changes in the pattern of glomerular diseases to help guide optimal allocation of resources, to focus future reasearch, and improve outcomes.Methods:A retrospective chart review was conducted on kidney biopsies taken between 2007 and 2016 at a single tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia (King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh) to evaluate the prevalence and pattern of glomerulonephritis (GN).Results:The most common primary GN in 102 biopsies from adult patients with a mean age of 28.9 ± 13.6 years and 40.2% female, was focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis (35.3%). Among 64 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus associated nephritis, of whom most (82.8%) were female, lupus nephritis (LN) 4 (46.9%), and (LN) 3 (32.8%) were the most common lupus nephritis classes.Conclusion:Establishing prospective GN registries from which robust diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes data can be acquired is warranted; however, registry development and maintenance are often precluded by resource limitations. Accordingly, retrospective analysis of administrative data will continue to provide important complementary information on GN epidemiology.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection has a high mortality rate and continues to be a global threat, which warrants the identification of all mortality risk factors in critically ill patients. Methods: This is a retrospective multicenter cohort study conducted in five hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We enrolled patients with confirmed SARS-COV-2 infection admitted to any of the intensive care units from the five hospitals between March 2020 and July 2020, corresponding to the peak of recorded COVID-19 cases in the KSA. Results: In total, 229 critically ill patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were included in the study. The presenting symptoms and signs of patients who died during hospitalization were not significantly different from those observed among patients who survived. The baseline comorbidities that were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality were diabetes (62% vs. 48% among patients who died and survived (p = 0.046)), underlying cardiac disease (38% vs. 19% (p = 0.001)), and underlying kidney disease (32% vs. 12% (p < 0.001)). Conclusion: In our cohort, the baseline comorbidities that were significantly associated with in-hospital mortality were diabetes, underlying cardiac disease, and underlying kidney disease. Additionally, the factors that independently influenced mortality among critically ill COVID-19 patients were high Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time (aPTT )and international normalization ratio (INR), acidosis, and high ferritin.

Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a rare autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Although it can occur secondary to lymphoproliferative disorders and autoimmune or infectious diseases, CAD is rarely reported as secondary to solid tumors. We report a case of a woman aged 18 years diagnosed with a well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma of the fibrolamellar subtype, who was shown to have CAD also. Her general condition, including CAD, improved after targeted therapy with sorafenib for the hepatocellular carcinoma and only conservative measures for the CAD that consisted of avoidance of cold. In summary, although it is an extremely rare association and less common than lymphoproliferative disorders, CAD can be associated with solid tumors.