Economist discussion on whether trading organs should be allowed
Following on from recent posts on the subject by Jamil, The Economist are hosting a live web debate on the issue of organ trading now. Join in on the discussion here.
Posts by
Conall O' Seaghdha
World Cup fever
Congratulations to the USA and England on going through to the second round of the World Cup today. As an Irishman, I will confess to a modicum of schadenfreude at the humiliating exit of France yesterday, but we…
A Grey Area: warfarin for atrial fibrillation in dialysis patients
I recently wrote a short post detailing safety concerns surrounding warfarin use for atrial fibrillation (AF) in dialysis patients. I focussed mostly on the emerging evidence that it may promote vascular and valvular calcification by the inhibition of…
Something about this doesn’t seem quite right…
There was an interesting case report in KI earlier this year. It concerned a 69yr old man with a history of benign prostatic hyperplasia and Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia (WM) who was admitted for the workup of renal failure. His…
What’s in a name?: Dr. Wegener’s Murky Past
This months issue of JASN has a review of ANCA-associated vasculitis. The authors discuss the controversy regarding the naming of Wegener’s Disease and whether it’s time for a new name to be chosen for this condition. Dr. Friedrich…
Variability in Blood Pressure: Just a blip?
What is your approach to the patient with occasional high, or variable, blood pressure readings, or measurements that bounce around above and below the target range? In such situations, the American Heart Association guidelines on measurement of blood…
Beyond the kidney
Mostly I think about the bladder, in a professional sense, as a possible site for obstruction to be ruled out. Occasionally, when I’m personally reminded about it, I wonder how much urine it can hold. (Pearl from residency:…
A great combination
Since the retraction of the COOPERATE trial by the Lancet late last year (following Regina Kunz’s famous ‘letter of concern’), combination RAAS blockade has suffered something of a fall from grace. This was dealt a second blow by…
Renal Malignancy Syndromes
I had a patient come to see me last week with the rare disorder, Birt Hogg Dube Syndrome (BHD). She was referred with a mildly elevated serum creatinine and microalbuminuria against a background of a single kidney following…
Renal Stress Testing
According to the most recent NHANEs data, 15.5 million Americans have CKD III, a figure that has increased by over 40% in less than a decade. CKD III is primarily a marker of global health outcomes, and affected…