This multicenter, randomized trial compared the effect of continuous renal-replacement therapy at two different levels of intensity on 90-day mortality among critically ill adults with acute kidney injury. The higher-intensity therapy did not reduce mortality at 90 days.

This study assessed the long-term renoprotective effect of intensified blood-pressure control among children receiving a fixed high dose of an angiotensin-converting–enzyme inhibitor. Intensified blood-pressure control, achieved with additional medication, to reach a targeted 24-hour blood pressure in the low range of normal appeared to confer a substantial benefit with respect to a delay in the progression of renal disease among children with chronic kidney disease. However, reappearance of proteinuria after initial successful pharmacologic control was common.

In this international collaborative study, mutations in the gene for glucocerebrosidase (GBA), a deficiency of which causes Gaucher's disease, were much more likely to be detected in patients with Parkinson's disease than in controls, confirming that there is a strong association between GBA mutations and Parkinson's disease.

In this randomized trial involving children with standard-risk hepatoblastoma, treatment with cisplatin alone caused fewer adverse events and achieved rates of complete resection and survival that were similar to rates achieved with treatment with cisplatin plus doxorubicin. These findings suggest that doxorubicin is not needed in treating children with hepatoblastoma who are not at high risk for a poor outcome.

A 23-year-old man with deep-vein thrombosis was found to have a gain-of-function mutation in his factor IX gene. The plasma level of factor IX was normal, but the coagulant activity of the mutant protein was approximately eight times the normal level. A younger brother with the same mutation also had a mutant factor IX with increased coagulant activity.