Detection of renal brush border membrane enzymes for evaluation of renal injury in neonatal scleredema

Objective: to evaluate renal brush border membrane enzymes in urine as an indicator for renal injury in neonatal scleredema(ns). methods: sixty nine ns patients in our hospital were enrolled and divided into mild group and moderate/ severe group. patients were further randomly divided into therapy and control subgroups for 7 days ligustrazine administration. urine samples were collected to detect renal brush border membrane enzymes (rbbme) by elisa and β2-microglobulin (β2-mg) by radioimmunoassay (ria). the results were compared with those of 30 normal neonates. data were statistically analyzed using spss13.0 software. results: both rbbme and β2-mg were found to be higher in urine in ns patients than normal controls (p < 0.01). level of rbbme increased with the severity of ns (p <0.05), while urinary β2-mg did not (p >0.05). after being treated with ligustrazine, a medicine for renal function recovery, both rbbme and β2-mg were similarly significantly decreased comparing to untreated groups (p < 0.05). 79.7% of ns patients showed abnormal rbbme while only 52.2% had an abnormal urinary β2-mg (χ^2=11.65, p < 0.01). conclusion: rbbme was more sensitive than β2-mg in reflecting the renal injury in ns. examination of rbbme effectively reflected the recovery of renal injury after treatment with ligustrazine.