An Interdisciplinary Team Caring for Children With Acute and Chronic Kidney Diseas

Young girl has ultrasound of kidneys taken in doctor's office.

Department of Pediatrics Annual Report – 2023

Nephrology and Hypertension

Banner graphic for the Department of Pediatrics Annual Report for 2023

Members of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension provide compassionate, state-of-the-art care for patients with acute and chronic kidney disease. Our division is at the forefront of research and discoveries that advance our understanding of kidney disease and its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. We are dedicated to training physicians in the best practices in pediatric nephrology.

Clinical Services

The division has five full-time and one part-time faculty members and provides comprehensive care for a wide range of kidney conditions. We have designated medical directors for our dialysis program and kidney transplantation program. The division’s dedicated interdisciplinary team includes physicians, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, a medical assistant, a dietitian, and a social worker who are all fully committed to caring for children with kidney disease and supporting them and their families through education and other resources.

Research

The division currently receives NIH funding for basic science, clinical, and translational research. Our broad research areas encompass cell biology of kidney tubular response to ischemic injury or urinary tract obstruction, pathogenesis of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, observational studies in glomerular disease, gene discoveries for congenital anomalies of the kidney and urology tract, and genetic studies for chronic kidney disease. We have ongoing and fruitful collaborations with precision medicine, adult nephrology, pathology, and neonatology. The knowledge we derive from this work will serve as the basis of future therapies for kidney disease.

Education

The division is heavily invested in educating future generations of pediatricians and pediatric nephrologists. Since 2012 we have been one of the most popular subspecialties for medical student and resident rotations. Over the past seven years, two of our fellows were named Fellow of the Year and one faculty member was voted Attending of the Year by pediatric residents at Columbia / NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Through the Nephrology Fellowship program, we train pediatric nephrologists to achieve high competence in patient care, renal research, and education. The program emphasizes hands-on learning and didactic teaching, and through a rigorous curriculum, fellows learn to diagnose and treat children with a wide spectrum of acute and chronic kidney diseases. One of the current fellows received 2- year NIH funding for clinical research under the U2C/TL1 program.

New Programs/Initiatives

  • Early and accurate identification of neonatal acute kidney injury using EMR. Contact: Elliott Huang, MD
  • Long-term follow up of hypertension and chronic kidney disease in humans born preterm: joint program of neonatology and pediatric nephrology

Learn More About Our Division

Promotions

Honors, Awards, Committees, Presentations/Invited Lectures

  • Rushelle Byfield, MD, MSCE
    • Chair-Elect, American Heart Association Hypertension and Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease Hypertension Science Committee
    • Conference Presenter: Hot Button Debates: Topics in Hypertension "Should we abandon the measurement of blood pressure in the clinic?"
    • Moderator: Innovations in Blood Pressure Measurement and Hypertension      
    • Phenotyping: State of the art update on hypertension and renovascular disease: Where are we in 2023?
    • Invited Lecturer - Sept 2023: 11th Annual Challenges in Hypertension
    • Invited Lecturer - Dec 2023: Pediatric Grand Rounds- NYP Westchester
  • Hilda Fernandez, MD
    • Presenter: 02/2023 “Glomerular Diseases in Adolescents: Management Strategies,"
      • Department of Medicine, CUIMC
    • Presenter: 02/2023 “Transition of Care from Adolescence to Adulthood”
      • Pediatric Grand Rounds, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY
    • Presenter: 3/2023 “Management of the Failing Allograft and Retransplantation”
      • Department of Surgery, CUIMC
    • Presenter: 5/2023 “POCUS for Nephrologists” - CME Course
      • Department of Medicine, CUIMC
    • Presenter: 9/2023 “Road to Pediatric Kidney Transplant”
      • Department of Pediatrics, CUIMC
    • Presenter: 12/2023 “Hereditary Chronic Kidney Disease in Kidney Transplant”
      • Department of Pediatrics, CUIMC
  • Fangming Lin, MD, PhD
    • Presenter: 10/14/2023, “Single-cell omics reveals transcriptomic regulation of renal hypertrophy and CKD”,
      • The 144th Salt and Water Club Meeting
    • Standing member, Pathobiology of Kidney Disease (PBKD) Study Session, NIDDK/NIH

Major Grants

  • New York Consortium for Interdisciplinary Training in Kidney, Urological and Hematological Research (NYC Train KUHR). NIH/NIDDK. PI: Jonathan M. Barasch, MD. Individual: Elliott Huang, MD
  • New York Consortium for Interdisciplinary Training in Kidney, Urological and Hematological Research (NYC Train KUHR). NIH/NIDDK. Primary site: Albert Einstein College of Medicine. PI: Melamed, M. Individual: Fangming Lin, MD, PhD. Through 05/2027
  • Generation of new mouse models of low nephron numbers to understand pathogenesis of AKl and CKD in humans born preterm. NIH/ National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) R01DK118140. Principal Investigator: Fangming Lin, MD, PhD. NCE through 11/30/23

Selected Publications

  • Byfield RL, Xiao R, Shimbo D, et al. Antihypertensive medication nonadherence and target organ damage in children with chronic kidney disease. Pediatr Nephrol. 2024;39(1):221-231. doi:10.1007/s00467-023-06059-w
  • Implementation and Feasibility of Clinical Genome Sequencing Embedded Into the Outpatient Nephrology Care for Patients With Proteinuric Kidney Disease. Kidney International Reports. 8. 10.1016/j.ekir.2023.05.021. Marasa, Maddalena & Ahram, Dina & Rehman, Atteeq & Mitrotti, Adele & Abhyankar, Avinash & Jain, Namrata & Weng, Patricia & Piva, Stacy & Fernandez, Hilda & Uy, Natalie & Chatterjee, Debanjana & Kil, Byum Hee & Nestor, Jordan & Felice, Vanessa & Robinson, Dino & Whyte, Dilys & Gharavi, Ali & Appel, Gerald & Radhakrishnan, Jai & Sanna-Cherchi, Simone. (2023).
  • A novel approach to pediatric cardiorenal syndrome. Progress in Pediatric Cardiology. 69. 101635. 10.1016/j.ppedcard.2023.101635. Donovan, Denis & Jain, Namrata & Feygina, Valeriya & Fernandez, Hilda & Zuckerman, Warren. (2023).
  • The impact of genetic education on referral of patients to genetic evaluation: Findings from a national survey of nephrologists. Genetics in Medicine. 25. 100814. 10.1016/j.gim.2023.100814. Milo Rasouly, Hila & Balderes, Olivia & Marasa, Maddalena & Fernandez, Hilda & Lipton, Marissa & Lin, Fangming & Gharavi, Ali & Sabatello, Maya. (2023). (Also listed below)
  • Low nephron endowment increases susceptibility to renal stress and chronic kidney disease.
  • Good PI, Li L, Hurst HA, Serrano Herrera I, Xu K, Rao M, Bateman DA, Al-Awqati Q, D'Agati VD, Costantini F, Lin F.JCI Insight. 2023 Feb 8;8(3).PMID: 36626229
  • Rare Single Nucleotide and Copy Number Variants and the Etiology of Congenital Obstructive Uropathy: Implications for Genetic Diagnosis.
  • Ahram DF, Lim TY, Ke J, Jin G, Verbitsky M, Bodria M, Kil BH, Chatterjee D, Piva SE, Marasa M, Zhang JY, Cocchi E, Caridi G, Gucev Z, Lozanovski VJ, Pisani I, Izzi C, Savoldi G, Gnutti B, Capone VP, Morello W, Guarino S, Esposito P, Lambert S, Radhakrishnan J, Appel GB, Uy NS, Rao MK, Canetta PA, Bomback AS, Nestor JG, Hays T, Cohen DJ, Finale C, Wijk JAEV, La Scola C, Baraldi O, Tondolo F, Di Renzo D, Jamry-Dziurla A, Pezzutto A, Manca V, Mitrotti A, Santoro D, Conti G, Martino M, Giordano M, Gesualdo L, Zibar L, Masnata G, Bonomini M, Alberti D, La Manna G, Caliskan Y, Ranghino A, Marzuillo P, Kiryluk K, Krzemień G, Miklaszewska M, Lin F, Montini G, Scolari F, Fiaccadori E, Arapović A, Saraga M, McKiernan J, Alam S, Zaniew M, Szczepańska M, Szmigielska A, Sikora P, Drożdż D, Mizerska-Wasiak M, Mane S, Lifton RP, Tasic V, Latos-Bielenska A, Gharavi AG, Ghiggeri GM, Materna-Kiryluk A, Westland R, Sanna-Cherchi S.J Am Soc Nephrol. 2023 Jun 1;34(6):1105-1119. PMID: 36995132
  • Implementation and Feasibility of Clinical Genome Sequencing Embedded Into the Outpatient Nephrology Care for Patients With Proteinuric Kidney Disease.
  • Marasa M, Ahram DF, Rehman AU, Mitrotti A, Abhyankar A, Jain NG, Weng PL, Piva SE, Fernandez HE, Uy NS, Chatterjee D, Kil BH, Nestor JG, Felice V, Robinson D, Whyte D, Gharavi AG, Appel GB, Radhakrishnan J, Santoriello D, Bomback A, Lin F, D'Agati VD, Jobanputra V, Sanna-Cherchi S.Kidney Int Rep. 2023 May 26;8(8):1638-1647. PMID: 37547535
  • The effect of genetic education on the referral of patients to genetic evaluation: Findings from a national survey of nephrologists.
  • Rasouly HM, Balderes O, Marasa M, Fernandez H, Lipton M, Lin F, Gharavi AG, Sabatello M. Genet Med. 2023 May;25(5):100814. PMID: 36789889
  • Strong protective effect of the APOL1 p.N264K variant against G2-associated focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and kidney disease.
  • Gupta Y, Friedman DJ, McNulty MT, Khan A, Lane B, Wang C, Ke J, Jin G, Wooden B, Knob AL, Lim TY, Appel GB, Huggins K, Liu L, Mitrotti A, Stangl MC, Bomback A, Westland R, Bodria M, Marasa M, Shang N, Cohen DJ, Crew RJ, Morello W, Canetta P, Radhakrishnan J, Martino J, Liu Q, Chung WK, Espinoza A, Luo Y, Wei WQ, Feng Q, Weng C, Fang Y, Kullo IJ, Naderian M, Limdi N, Irvin MR, Tiwari H, Mohan S, Rao M, Dube GK, Chaudhary NS, Gutiérrez OM, Judd SE, Cushman M, Lange LA, Lange EM, Bivona DL, Verbitsky M, Winkler CA, Kopp JB, Santoriello D, Batal I, Pinheiro SVB, Oliveira EA, Simoes E Silva AC, Pisani I, Fiaccadori E, Lin F, Gesualdo L, Amoroso A, Ghiggeri GM, D'Agati VD, Magistroni R, Kenny EE, Loos RJF, Montini G, Hildebrandt F, Paul DS, Petrovski S, Goldstein DB, Kretzler M, Gbadegesin R, Gharavi AG, Kiryluk K, Sampson MG, Pollak MR, Sanna-Cherchi S. Nat Commun. 2023 Nov 30;14(1):7836. PMID: 38036523

Highlights

Is Kidney Function in Pediatric Transplant Patients Impacted When Transferred to Adult Care?

Hilda E. Fernandez, MD, medical director, Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program in the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, led a study to examine whether risk factors for graft loss, such as a decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and high variability in tacrolimus (TAC), could be detected among youth cared for in a single pediatric kidney transplant center before their transfer to adult services.

Advances in Pediatrics