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
Kidney Transplant News Item
This is a little old but still funny if you haven’t seen it already. Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
A better way for CKD staging?
Presently the KDOQI Staging system for CKD (see figure) is what is used most commonly to classify the severity of reduced renal function. This is based purely on an estimation of the GFR, using equations such as the…
The Erythropoietin Receptor
As we all know, erythropoietin is secreted predominantly by the kidney (85% from the kidney, 15% from the liver) in response to hypoxia and its function is to stimulate erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. What is the receptor…
Fibromuscular Dysplasia
Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) accounts for a significant fraction of renal artery stenosis. The distinction between fibromuscular dysplasia and atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis is important as the former tends to respond much more readily to interventional therapy than the…
Combined Kidney/Bone Marrow Transplants
One of the interesting ongoing protocols at the Massachusetts General Hospital Kidney Transplant Program is the combined kidney/bone marrow transplant protocol. The idea here is to transplant both kidney & hematopoeitic stem cells from the same donor, which…
Lithium-Induced Hyperparathyroidism
Lithium, a very effective medication in the treatment of bipolar disorder, has a variety of well-documented renal side effects, including interstitial nephritis and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus. A less well-recognized complication is an increased prevalence of hyperparathyroidism in chronic…
How to Do the Water Deprivation Test
The water deprivation test is useful in the workup of patients with polyuria under certain situations. The differential diagnosis of polyuria often comes down to the following: does the patient have diabetes insipidus (either central or nephrogenic), psychogenic…
Quality Electrolyte Articles
I was recently alerted to a great lecture series on acid-base & electrolytes by Mitch Halperin and colleagues which are published in the Quartery Journal of Medicine (QJM). They are generally case-based articles which use an imaginary physician…
Prostaglandin Basics
A few basics about the prostaglandins, a major player in renal hemodynamics. Prostaglandins are fatty acid-based compounds which carry out a variety of cellular effects. The pathway begins with phospholipid within the plasma membrane, which is converted to…
Renal Pharmacokinetics of Dilantin
Today is the 1-year anniversary of the Renal Fellow Network. I started it towards the end of my 1st (clinical) year of nephrology fellowhip on April 23, 2008…and since this is the 320th post, I’ve done a reasonably…