We were following a CKD patient with CLL in hospital with the haematology team. One morning, out of the blue, his potassium came back at 6.5mmol/L. It had been stable in the high four range for the duration…
I must admit that I have always routinely advised holding ACE/ARB prior to major surgery, given the possibility of hemodynamic instability and assumed risk of AKI due to impaired renal autoregulation when perfusion pressure is low. I’m prepared…
The complete removal of a substance expressed as volume per unit time is known as clearance. The hemodialysis machine is built to be a urea clearance machine and typical urea clearance rates range from 200-260 ml/min, far more…
In our dialysis unit, the standard HCO3 bath is 35 mmol/L. While it is adjustable, it is rarely changed but recently we had a patient with a pre-dialysis HCO3 of 12 which got me thinking about what constitutes…
Here are some interesting points I picked up at an ASN review to reinforce Gearoids post discussing changes in reference values during pregnancy and Michael’s board review post which covers a lot of the physiology also. Kidneys increase…
I recently saw a patient in the emergency department with chronic lithium toxicity and took the opportunity to do some review. Three broad patterns of lithium toxicity are recognized: Acute toxicity – Seen in patients not previously taking…
One of the commonest calls that one gets as a renal fellow in the dialysis unit concerns poor flows from catheters. This is often related to catheter-related thrombus formation and there are a number of different strategies employed…
Over the past decade, controversy about whether ANCA is itself directly pathogenic has largely abated, primarily based on convincing animal models of small vessel vasculitis in mice and rats mediated by MPO ANCA. But as this issue is…
Several of the contributors and editors are heading to Denver for ASN Renal Week 2010. If you are going let us know. We would love to talk. Catch us at the NKF booth (#1617) where you can surf…
The editors and contributors of Renal Fellow Network (RFN) are proud to announce the partnership with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). You will notice a few changes which we hope will help enhance the site. First, we have…