In the Lancet April 3, 2010 issue, the Renal Disaster Relief Task Force (RDRTF) of the International Society of Nephrology reflected on some of the lessons learned from the Haiti relief efforts after the January 12, 2010 earthquake….
Nate Hellman MD PhD, the founder of the Renal Fellow Network, died tragically just over two months ago. He was a wonderful person, who possessed a strong sense of humanity, humor and compassion. Nate touched the lives of…
Almost one year ago, Nate posted here about the results of a large GWA study of chronic kidney disease by Kottgen et al. This project was the result of a collaboration between 4 groups, and produced many exciting…
Monoclonal gammopathies generally arise from an abnormal clone that has developed from a single cell of B-cell lineage. The monoclonal protein can be intact immunoglogulin (often associated with free light chain), free light chain (FLC) in isolation, or…
I saw a patient in clinic in follow up this week who was interesting. A 90 year old thoroughly delightful woman who presented last July with acute renal failure, creatinine rising from normal to 4.4 within a period…
Spironolactone has long been favored in the setting of decompensated liver disease; the effective control of “secondary aldosteronism” is usually given as the reason for this in textbooks. However, this is like saying you should open a new…
I recently saw a patient in clinic who has type I diabetes and received a kidney transplant from a sibling ~15 yrs ago. His allograft function remains excellent, but recently his diabetic control has been more difficult, despite…
When caring for dialysis patients, we all use the well described KDOQI and KDIGO guidelines and ensure that the published goals are reached (please remember that the necessary government forms must also be completed!). We all pay special…
This blog post focuses on some of the lesser-discussed aspects of ESRD: depression and psychosocial issues related to ESRD. Studying depression in the ESRD population is an important issue because it is likely the most prevalent psychiatric disease…
Within the last 2 years dialysis facilities in the US have been adjusting to the now not-so-new Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Coverage. CMS, as many of you know, funds the ESRD program to…
