Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome in Childhood: Clinical, Cognitive and Psychological Aspects
Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome in Childhood: Clinical, Cognitive and Psychological Aspects
The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical, cognitive outcome and psychosocial
 outcome of haemolytic uraemic syndrome in childhood.

 The haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) is the leading cause of acute renal failure in
 childhood. The more common typical HUS is mostly caused by Shigatoxin-producing
 enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). The rarer atypical HUS is mainly caused by
 different genetic abnormalities in complement regulatory proteins.

 About 50 till 60 percent of all patients with HUS develop a severe acute renal failure and
 require dialysis. Resulting from new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches the survival rate
 increased during the last years. Despite this, there are only few data concerning long-term
 prognosis, cognitive and motoric development, as well as psychological coping and
 health-related quality of life of affected children and their parents.
The main purposes of this study are: the evaluation of the long-term renal function of
 pediatric HUS-patients; the evaluation of the dialysis method in the acute phase of the
 disease and its impact on the duration of the renal-placement-therapy, as well as the
 long-term renal function; the evaluation of the intellectual and motoric performance of
 affected children and the evaluation of the health-related quality of life and psychological
 processing of the patients themselves and their parents.

 All cases of HUS treated at the University Children's Hospital Zurich between 1995 and 2012
 will be analyzed retrospectively. In the course of a routine-follow-up-examination the
 clinical data of patients up to the age of 17 years will be actualized and completed. The
 results of clinical and paraclinical investigations related to renal function will be
 evaluated to describe the clinical features of haemolytic uraemic syndrome in childhood.

 Intellectual performance will be analyzed with the Wechsler-Intelligence Scale for
 Children-IV (WISC-IV) and motoric performance with the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment in
 children at the age from 6 to 16 years.

 The health-related quality-of-life of all parents and affected children from the age of 7
 years will be assessed by different generic quality-of-life-instruments.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  children and youth from 2 months to 17 years who had suffered from haemolytic uraemic
 syndrome

 -  willingness and ability to participate in the study

 -  freely signed informed consent

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  missing written informed consent

 -  children who do not fulfil the age criterion