I was on the phone to one of my friends the other day. He’s a renal fellow currently doing lab-based research in Boston. He’s been having a difficult time of it lately, with none of his experiments working…
Peter Mundel, a well-known researcher of podocyte biology, gave our Renal Grand Rounds today. Here’s what I took away from this morning’s talk: -regulation of the podocyte’s actin cytoskeleton is postulated to be the final common pathway in…
You may have come across the phrase “Luminex beads” while doing your transplant nephrology rotation, or heard the term while hanging out in the Tissue Typing Lab. This post is intended to briefly describe the Luminex technology and…
This month’s Kidney International “Nephrology Image” features a report by Chen et al in which they describe a PD patient who noted cloudy, deep green dialysate fluid upon drainage of their peritoneum. They also presented with right upper…
This month’s issue of AJKD includes an enlightening group of 6 editorials, each written from a unique perspective (e.g., the perspective of large dialysis corporations, the perspective of the ESRD Networks, the perspective of non-profit dialysis corporations, etc.),…
Linking up nicely with Nate’s rituximab post from this Tuesday, I wanted to mention a patient with lupus nephritis whom I saw in clinic this week. She had had horrendous renal disease, as seen on the three kidney…
Interestingly, there was a near 50-50 divide on last week’s poll question regarding the surprising election of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate in the state of Massachusetts. Many viewed the election as a referendum on public…
IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is an unpredictable beast, and identifying patients who will go on to develop progressive disease can be challenging. The classic predictors of progression, namely heavy proteinuria, CKD, glomerular sclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, are themselves just…
Take-home points from Mayo Clinic’s Fernando Fervenza’s excellent Renal Grand Rounds this morning, in which he addresses the potential use of rituximab as a treatment for membranous nephropathy: -the “rule of thirds” that we learn about membranous nephropathy (e.g.,…
An interesting figure in this month’s ASN Kidney News details the quarterly earnings for three major dialysis companies in the U.S.: DaVita, Dialysis Corporation of America (DCA), and Fresenius. Also included in the figure (not shown here) is…