Pediatric Nephrology in Iran – Mohkam Met al
Journal of pediatric nephrology | Volume 1 | Number 1| July 2013 1
Editorial
J Ped. Nephrology 2013 July;1(1):1-2
http://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/jpn
History of Pediatric Nephrology in Iran
Masoumeh Mohkam MD,* Nakysa Hooman‚
How to Cite This Article: MohkamM, Hooman N. History of Pediatric Nephrology in Iran. J Ped. Nephrology 2013 July;1(1):1-2.
1Pediatric Nephrology Research Center,
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical science, Tehran, Iran
2Iran University of Medical Science. Tehran-Iran
*Corresponding Author
Masoumeh Mohkam
Mofid Children’s Hospital, Tehran-Iran
E-mail: mohkam@pirc.ir
Telefax: +98 (21) 22227033

In Iran, clinical management of children with renal
diseases was handled mostly by pediatricians and
general physicians up to 1965. This changed when
Prof. Ghamar Hosseini-Alhashemi returned home
(Shiraz) from Boston University in 1965, and
shortly after that in 1966, Prof. Esfandiar Bodaghi
from France.
Prof. Ghamar Hosseini-Alhashemi founded the
Pediatric Nephrology Ward in Nemazi Hospital in
Shiraz. Dr. Sadegh Saberi joined Dr. Hashemi in
1977, and Dr. Majid Rasoulpour joined them in
1978. They were both trained in the United States.
Dr. Hashemi, Saberi and Rasoulpour designated
Sadee Hospital as the Pediatric Nephrology Center
of the University. They were very active in patient
care and teaching, and began setting up projects
for clinical research. However Dr. Rasoulpour had
to leave Iran in 1980, and Dr. Saberi left the
country two years later [3,4]. Prof. Hosseini-
Alhashemi and her colleagues began to take care
of pediatric nephrologic patients in their hospital.
They also trained medical students and residents
in this filed for a while and by 1990, she had
started the fellowship training in her ward for the
first time in Iran. She has trained more than 30
pediatric nenphrologists up to now. Prof. Bodaghi,
who had studied pediatric nephrology with
pioneers such as Pierre Royer, Renee Habib, and
Victor Courtecuisse in specialized departments of
Necker – Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris
during1964-66, redacted a memorandum entitle:

Lethal Nephrotic Syndrome in Children [3]. He
returned to Iran and began to take care of children
suffering from renal diseases first at Komack
Charity Hospital as a faculty member of Tehran
University, and later at the newly founded
Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Tehran. He
continued to provide care to children with kidney
diseases, and to train medical students and
residents. He used the most modern
histopathology techniques, including electron
microscopy and immunofluorescent microscopy
for diagnosis. In 1974, he founded the Research
Laboratory of Nephrology at this medical center
[4].

For several years, there were only two centers in
Shiraz and Tehran where academic pediatric
nephrology was practiced and Prof. Hashemi and
Prof. Bodaghi took care of children with renal
disease (Figure 1).
Later on, prior to the Islamic revolution, Dr.
Ahmad Mashouf began to take care of children
with renal diseases at the former Shahrazad, and
the current Ali Asghar Children’s Hospital. Dr.
Shams Vazirian, Dr. Abbas Madani, and Dr.
Malektaj Honarmand collaborated with Dr.
Bodaghi in Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The
first pediatric kidney transplantation was done by
Dr. Iraj Fazel in 1987 in Iran. In 1990, after the
Islamic revolution, the minister of health and
medical education, Dr. Reza Malekzadeh, decided
to establish subspecialty centers for pediatric
nephrology in the Iranian universities. So, the first
department of pediatric nephrology for fellowship
training courses and caring of children with renal
disorders was founded by Dr. Ghamar Hosseini –
Alhashemi in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences
in 1990; after that, other centers were founded (in
Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Tehran, by Dr.
Abbas Madani; in Kermanshah by Dr. Shams
Vazirian; in Aliasghar Hospital, Tehran, by Dr.
Hasan Otukesh; and after a while in Sheikh
Hospital, Mashhad, by Dr. Esmaeeli; and in Mofid
Hospital, Tehran, by Dr. Mostafa Sharifian.) These
centers offer fellowship programs that consist of a
two-year course aimed at training academic
pediatric nephrologists that are able to establish
their own centers. The fellowship program
provides acquaintance with a wide variety of renal
diseases and patient care including inpatient care,
consultation, outpatient visits, and care of
transplant recipients. They become proficient in
all technical aspects such as kidney biopsy,
peritoneal dialysis, and hemodialysis, and acquire
experience in interpretation of pathological
samples and radiologic studies [5,6]. Since the
establishment of the pediatric nephrology
program, about 70 trainees have graduated who
are mostly working as faculty members across the
country. Fortunately, this prevents from sending
children to foreign centers for nephrology care
and transplantation. The Iranian Society of
Pediatric Nephrology was found in 2007 in Iran.
This society has more than 80 members up to
now. It has held 3 congresses and more than 20
scientific seminars in recent years. Another
important achievement of this society was to
found the Journal of Pediatric Nephrology in Iran
in 2013.

References

• History of Pediatric Nephrology in Iran.      http://iranspn.com/history.htm
• Bodaghi E, History of pediatric nephrology, Iran J
  Pediatr 2006;16(1): 99-103.
• Habib R, Courtecuisse V, Bodaghi E. Thrombosis of
  the pulmonary arteries in nephrotic syndromes in
  children. J Urol Nephrol (Paris) 1968; 74(4):349-62.
• Bodaghi E, Vazirian S, Madani A, Shamsa AM,
  Afzali HM, Elmi F. Primary nephrotic syndrome in
  Iran: clinicopathological study of 310 cases. Int J
  Pediatr Nephrol 1986;7(3):127-30.
• Curriculum of Pediatric nephrology.
  http://cgme.behdasht.gov.ir/uploads/264_920_Curr
  iculumfogh_KoliyehKoodak.pdf
• Ghamar Hosseini Al Hashemi Address: C/O Nemazi
  Hospital, Shiraz.
  med.sums.ac.ir/icarusplus/export/sites/medical…/
  dr.hashemi.pdf