Carotid intima media thickness in children with nephrotic syndrome: an observational case control study

Carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) is considered as a surrogate marker for the various cardiovascular events that complicate nephrotic syndrome (NS). The present work was conducted to study cIMT in children with NS and to find out its correlation with dyslipidemia and other risk factors. This was a case control study conducted at a tertiary care hospital in children with NS who were more than 2 years with normal serum complement, being on therapy for NS for at least 1 year, glomerular filtration rate more than 90 ml/minute/1.73 m² and absence of acute infection in previous 3 months. Sixty six children with NS constituted the case material and 128 age and sex matched children were taken as control. The mean age in case and control cohort was 6.71 ± 3.3 and 7.89 ± 3.95 years, respectively. The mean age of onset of illness was 4.32 ± 2.25 years. The mean duration of illness was 2.39 ± 1.44 years. Thickness of cIMT was higher in NS children as compared to control group in all the ages, but this difference was statistically significant only after 4 years of age. There was statistically significant, but weak positive correlation between cIMT and age of NS children, duration of disease and number of relapses. There was no correlation of cIMT with hypertension, body mass index, serum creatinine, and dyslipidemia. A negative, but statistically insignificant correlation of cIMT was found with serum albumin and serum cholesterol.