{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T07:10:43Z","timestamp":1778310643701,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences","issue":"6","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pak J Med Sci"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of levamisole in maintaining remission of proteinuria in children with frequent relapsing and steroid dependent nephrotic syndrome (FR\/SDNS).\r\nMethods: This observational study on 81 children with FR \/SDNS was carried out from June 2007 - June 2017 at The Kidney Center-Postgraduate Training Institute, Karachi-Pakistan. Levamisole (leva) along with low dose prednisolone on alternate day (AD) was used after induction of remission with daily oral prednisolone in children with FR\/ SDNS for 6-36 months. Patients with steroid resistance were excluded. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.\r\nResults: Eighty-one patients with FR (66) or SD (15) received levamisole treatment. Mean age at diagnosis was 3.72 \u00b12.33 years. Levamisole was used on AD in 59.25% and daily in 40.74% of cases. Twenty-four could not complete six months and were excluded, 57 patients completed treatment duration of 15.68\u00b19.93 months and 51 post-leva follow-up of 11.70\u00b111.23 months. Mean cumulative prednisolone dose per patient before, on-leva and post-leva was 3389.81\u00b12785.22, 2471.97\u00b12024.98 and 661.37\u00b1 905.37 mg respectively. Mean relapse rate per year before leva, on -leva and post -leva was 3.30 \u00b10.50,0.98\u00b1 1.1and 0.79\u00b11.27 respectively. Levamisole was effective in 90% of patients. During post-leva follow up, 76.4% patients, maintained remission, whereas 23.5% behaved as FR\/SD and require further immunosuppressive therapy.\r\nConclusions: Levamisole was effective in maintaining remission in 90% while on treatment, whereas it maintained remission after discontinuation in 76.4% cases. Levamisole may be used as first steroid sparing agent before other immunosuppressive therapies in children with FR\/SDNS. Further studies are required for optimal duration and dosage schedule.\r\ndoi: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12669\/pjms.36.6.2337\r\nHow to cite this:Moorani KN, Zubair AM, Veerwani NR, Hotchandani HJ. Efficacy of Levamisole in Children with Frequent Relapsing and Steroid Dependent Nephrotic Syndrome at Tertiary\u00a0Care Center-Karachi. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(6):1193-1198.\u00a0\u00a0doi: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12669\/pjms.36.6.2337\r\nThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.12669\/pjms.36.6.2337","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,25]],"date-time":"2020-07-25T07:44:19Z","timestamp":1595663059000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Efficacy of Levamisole in children with Frequent Relapsing and Steroid Dependent Nephrotic Syndrome at Tertiary\u00a0Care Center-Karachi"],"prefix":"10.12669","volume":"36","author":[{"given":"Khemchand Netaram","family":"Moorani","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Aasia Mohammad","family":"Zubair","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nanga Ram","family":"Veerwani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Harnam Jaichand","family":"Hotchandani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"4935","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,19]]},"container-title":["Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pjms.org.pk\/index.php\/pjms\/article\/download\/2337\/658","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/pjms.org.pk\/index.php\/pjms\/article\/download\/2337\/658","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T06:20:36Z","timestamp":1778307636000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pjms.org.pk\/index.php\/pjms\/article\/view\/2337"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,19]]},"references-count":0,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,19]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12669\/pjms.36.6.2337","relation":{},"ISSN":["1681-715X","1682-024X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1681-715X","type":"electronic"},{"value":"1682-024X","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,8,19]]}}}