Anti-Nephrin Antibodies in Minimal Change Disease
Approach to the Patient with Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Dysfunction- Part 1
Want to write a case report? RFN has you covered with a list of journals to choose from
Have a Nephrology Question? There Might Be A #Tweetorial For That!
Conferences, Courses, & Grants
FOAMed
Interventional Nephrology Series
Focus on Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Nephrology (POCUN) Series
Kidney Biopsy of the Month Series
Dietary modifications for prevention of nephrolithiasis
Secondary prevention of nephrolithiasis is often overlooked, but since a large percentage of 1st-time stone formers will go on to develop another episode of nephrolithiasis, it makes sense to make simple dietary modifications that can minimize the risk…
What are T-regs?
The term “T-regs” is shorthand for “regulatory T-cells”–a subpopulation of T-cells which act to suppress immune system activation and promote tolerance towards self-antigens. Although the existence of T-regs was felt to be controversial up until relatively recently, the…
A Wide Range of Potassium Behaviors
Very interesting results of the RFN Poll of the Week regarding different opinions regarding managing the potassium bath in a patient with hyperkalemia! Of the options give, there was a near three-way split between the first three answers…
Calculating Total Body Water
The easy way to calculate total body water is simply to multiply 0.6 times your weight in kilograms, since roughly 2/3 of your body weight is water. There are fancier (and more accurate) equation-based calculations used to determine…
Personalized Medicine for Kidney Disease?
Interesting review in this month’s CJASN: “Can we personalize treatment for kidney diseases?” by Rovin et al. The term “personalized medicine” has been defined by the U.S. Congress as, “the application of genomic and molecular data to…
Telomeres, Renal Cell Carcinoma, and the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine
The winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine were revealed today, shared by three Americans: Carol Greider, Elisabeth Blackburn, and Jack Szostak, the latter of whom works at my home institution of Massachusetts General Hospital. The award…
Is cystatin C the next creatinine?
As we all know, there are significant limitations to the use of creatinine as an estimate of GFR. Creatinine is freely filtered at the glomerulus, but in addition is also secreted to some degree, meaning that creatinine clearance…
Evidence-Based Medicine versus Statin Use in ESRD Patients
It can often be difficult to stop something once it’s been started; take statins for example. It seems that despite consistent evidence from two large, randomized controlled trails demonstrating the lack efficacy of statins for preventing cardiovascular mortality…
The Trials and Tribulations of the Renal Fellow
The readers of the Renal Fellow Network have spoken, and the answer is clear: the most blood pressure elevating activity is catheter-related! 29% of fellows selected the first answer (the MICU nurse paging you to inform that your…
A sweet alternative to kayexelate?
Trust the Swiss to approach a problem from a confectioners viewpoint. The options for managing hyperkalemia in dialysis patients have always been limited and unpalatable, but this preliminary clinical study from Berne provides some hope. It suggests that…