Water, sodium and potassium regulation is usually altered in end-stage renal disease patients, particularly in frail individuals such as pediatric and elderly people. In this review article, pathophysiology of water, sodium, and potassium imbalance in peritoneal dialysis pediatric patients is in detail described. Understanding the etiological mechanisms of dysnatremia and dyskalemia in this group is crucial for their proper diagnosis and treatment.

The purpose of our study is to identify the fetal genetic factors contributing to birth weight (BW) and their possible cooperative interactions. We have reexamined our data on four genetic systems previously studied Acid Phosphatase locus 1 (ACP1), Phosphoglucomutae locus 1 (PGM1), Adenosine Deaminase (ADA1), Adenilate Kinase locus 1 (Ak1 concerning their effects on BW)
Two hundred forty five newborn infants from the White population of Rome and 343 newborns from the White population of Penne delivered by healthy nonsmoking mothers have been considered. Enzyme phenotypes were determined by starch gel electrophoresis.
Marked differences concerning BW are observed between phenotypes of Ak1 in both Rome and Penne. For other markers a BW difference between genotypes is less marked and shows variability between the two populations but are always in the same direction. In both populations, in infants from nonsmoking mothers, there is a positive correlation between the number of genetic factors and BW.A linear positive correlation is observed between the number of factors and the proportion of infants with a BW greater than the 90thpercentile.The correlation is observed in infants with gestational length > 38 weeks only. In infants from smoking mothers there is no significant correlation
The results are in line with the hypothesis that BW is influenced by a great number of genetic factors each with small effect and that there is a cooperative interaction between these factors.