Transcripts
DR. BRANDT:
Now, renal biopsies are very useful for evaluating structural damage after HUS, essentially telling you how much scar tissue formation there is. But they are not always useful in predicting who will develop HUS related renal failure later in life.
They are useful. Certainly someone with 50 percent scarring in their kidneys is at greater risk for eventual kidneys problems than someone with 10 percent scarring. But they don't provide direct information about function and we usually prefer functionality. Renal biopsies are rarely done in the US except in experimental settings. They are done more commonly in other countries, such as France. In Paris, they do a lot of renal biopsies on Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. And if future studies show them to be helpful in predicting future damage, we may see wider use in the U.S.
