CEUS represents a useful method in clinical practice for differentiating between malignant and benign FLLs detected on standard ultrasonography, and the results of this study are in concordance with previous multicenter studies: DEGUM (Germany) and STIC (France).

The PREDATORR study showed a high prevalence of chronic kidney disease in the adult Romanian population providing data on its prognosis and association with several cardio-metabolic risk factors.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is the prototype of autoimmune disorders caused by a loss of tolerance to endogenous nuclear antigens triggering an aberrant autoimmune response targeting various tissues. Lupus nephritis (LN), a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with SLE, affects up to 60% of patients. The recent insights into the genetic and molecular basis of SLE and LN paved the way for newer therapies to be developed for these patients. Apart from the traditional B-cell-centered view of this disease pathogenesis, acknowledging that multiple extrarenal and intrarenal pathways contribute to kidney-specific autoimmunity and injury may help refine the individual therapeutic and prognostic characterization of such patients. Accordingly, the formerly induction-maintenance treatment strategy was recently challenged with the exciting results obtained from the trials that evaluated add-on therapy with voclosporin, belimumab, or Obinutuzumab. The scope of this review is to provide an insight into the current knowledge of LN pathogenesis and future therapeutic strategies.

Introduction. Acute kidney injury represents an important clinical syndrome within nephrology, approximately 5% of hospitalised patients being affected. Establishing a diagnosis for acute kidney injury can be challenging and requires many steps. A complete and correct diagnosis is essential for appropriate therapy and, ultimately, the patient’s prognosis.Methods.An objective of this study is to determine the presentation of certain characteristics for the diagnosis of acute kidney injury. It is also intended to show the therapeutic methods undertaken for patients presenting with acute kidney injury, as well as evolution under therapy.Results. The most common causes of acute kidney injury were medical causes and within that category, cardiovascular diseases were the most common etiological factor (18%). Nephropathies represented a minority, with acute pyelonephritis, responsible for 5% of medical causes, and acute glomerulonephritis accounting for 6%. Hemodialysis was initiated only in 15% of patients. The rest of the patients were treated conservatively and responded favourably to this therapeutic approach. The etiological factors that had the greatest number of patients requiring hemodialysis were Rifampicin administration and leptospirosis (~20% each).Conclusions.The clinical characteristics of acute kidney injury are variable and are usually specific to the etiology of the disease. The most common causes were cardiovascular diseases (18%). The therapeutic approach was rather conservative. Hemodialysis was instituted only in 15% of the patients. Almost 5% of all patients evolved to chronic kidney disease in a variable period of time, and the overall mortality was 18%, mainly due to infections and cardiovascular complications.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and multiple underlying mechanisms involved in pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy (DN) have been described. Although various treatments and diagnosis applications are available, DN remains a clinical and economic burden, considering that about 40% of type 2 diabetes patients will develop nephropathy. In the past years, some research found that hypoxia response and hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) play critical roles in the pathogenesis of DN. Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) HIF-1, HIF-2, and HIF-3 are the main mediators of metabolic responses to the state of hypoxia, which seems to be the one of the earliest events in the occurrence and progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). The abnormal activity of HIFs seems to be of crucial importance in the pathogenesis of diseases, including nephropathies. Studies using transcriptome analysis confirmed by metabolome analysis revealed that HIF stabilizers (HIF-prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors) are novel therapeutic agents used to treat anemia in CKD patients that not only increase endogenous erythropoietin production, but also could act by counteracting the metabolic alterations in incipient diabetic kidney disease and relieve oxidative stress in the renal tissue. In this review, we present the newest data regarding hypoxia response and HIF involvement in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy and new therapeutic insights, starting from improving kidney oxygen homeostasis.