Cardiovascular complications are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with CKD and ESRD. Although myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death get a lot of attention, stroke is also extremely important in this population. How should…
In patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis, hydrothorax is defined as the presence of peritoneal dialysate fluid in the pleural cavity. This PD complication has an incidence of high glucose concentration and a variable cell count. Patients diagnosed with a…
Cancer-associated hypercalcemia is the #1 cause for hypercalcemia in the inpatient setting (in the outpatient setting, the main cause is primary hyperparathyroidism). In general, hypercalcemia of malignancy portends a poor prognosis, and there are three main mechanisms by…
Poll results: the most appealing Nephrology Consult scenario chosen, perhaps not surprisingly, was workup of new-onset glomerulonephritis (44%). I would contend that many individuals choose Nephrology because they are interested in issues such as glomerulonephritis, interesting electrolyte and…
I was recently asked the mechanism by which insulin resistance causes sodium retention and hypertension, and had to lie. Here’s what I should have said. Serum and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1) is an enzymatic central orchestrator of many…
Why do we care about hypomagnesemia? And why are cardiologists so eager to replete the serum magnesium above 2.0 mg/dL? Very low serum Mg can result in serious cardiovascular and CNS effects. Specifically, hypomagnesemia can cause QRS widening…
I recently saw my first patient formally diagnosed with familial juvenile hyperuricemic nephropathy (FJHN), and since I had little prior knowledge about this condition, I decided to read up. Apparently, FJHN is more common than we think, and…
Concerning the basics of PD prescription writing–and only the basics, since there’s lots to say about this interesting topic–the minimum prescription should specify the following: 1. What kind of PD does the patient use: for the most part,…
I stumbled across a bit of Nephrology/Urology history the other day while strolling around a hospital in Paris: this plaque commemorating one of the key steps in the invention of ureteroscopy and cystoscopy. The plaque can be found…
Happy New Year’s Eve! I found the results of last week’s poll to be surprising…well, I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked to see that Nephrology Fellows won the “hardest working fellow in show business” award, being that…