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
Bactrim & elevated creatinine
The antibiotic Bactrim is frequently associated with an increase in creatinine shortly after starting it. While Bactrim is a not uncommon cause of acute interstitial nephritis (AIN), the most frequent reason for a Bactrim-associated creatinine increase is actually…
Old Dialysis Video
Check out this video I found of the alleged first-ever home dialysis patient in England. Very civilized, except for the fact that it looks like the patient is using a permanent femoral dialysis catheter–something which would be used…
CKD in the Elderly
A current controversy in the CKD community involves definitions of CKD in the elderly. The issue is not trivial: were we to apply the standard KDOQI definitions of CKD staging, using the MDRD equation to estimate GFR, this…
cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury
At the Brigham and Women’s Hospital & the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, there is an ongoing trial of using pneumonectomy and injected, heated cisplatin into the pleural space for patients with malignant mesothelioma, a condition with an overall…
mesanagial cells
Mesangial cells–which historically have received less attention than their more “sexy” neighbor cell types of the glomerulus such as podocytes & endothelial cells–are actually quite interesting. They were originally seen as having purely a “matrix” function–that is, serving…
Gamblegrams
Heard a very good Renal Grand Rounds yesterday from visiting professor Michael Emmett, currently chair of the Dept. of Medicine at Baylor, regarding the anion gap. Amongst the pearls I took away from his lecture: 1. “Gamblegrams” (left),…
Why does hypomagnesemia result in refractory hypokalemia?
We’ve known this medical factoid since we were medical students: you can’t successfully replete a potassium-depleted patient if they have low magnesium levels. But what is the mechanism by which this occurs? One possible explanation is put forth…
TGF-betas & diabetic nephropathy
The TGF-beta family of proteins has wide effects on nearly every tissue of the body–it is one of the key players in a mammalian development and homeostasis. It also has particular relevance to renal pathophysiology as one of…
Scoring System for ATN vrs pre-renal AKI
One of the earliest time-saving tricks I learned as a Nephrology fellow was to always ask the covering housestaff to have a specimen of piping hot urine waiting for me at the time of the initial consult: I…
What is DOPPS?
DOPPS is an acronym which stands for “Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study.” It is one of the largest prospective study of ESRD patients worldwide and is comprised of a random sampling of dialysis patients in a random…