One of the rare but serious side effects of recombinant erythropoietin therapy is the possibility of pure red cell aplasia, an autoimmune condition in which antibodies against erythropoietin result in T-cell-mediated destruction of erythroid precursors. It may be…
The pre-eclampsia story (which I have mentioned previously on this blog) is one of the triumphs of basic nephrology research over the past few years, and apparently the folks at the ASN thought so as well, as Dr….
The private company CVRx has developed an interesting method under investigation for blood pressure control in highly refractory hypertensive patients. The approach consists of a surgical implant of electrodes at the carotid sinus; stimulation at the sinus results…
What’s a picture of Mozart doing on the Renal Fellow Network? Fellow renal fellow Lisa Cohen gave a presentation on nephrotic syndrome at our Renal Grand Rounds and discussed evidence that Mozart, who died at the young age…
Identifying the “permeability factor” for patients with FSGS or minimal change disease has been one of the “holy grails” of nephrology, and our inability to identify such a factor has not been for any lack of trying. One…
We all know about the p-ANCA and the c-ANCA, which are antibodies against either myeloperoxidase (MPO) or proteinase-3 (PR3), respectively. Now get ready for a 3rd ANCA subtype, an antibody against LAMP-2! In a recent Nature Medicine article…
Did you know that there are tiny vesicles in your pee? A 2004 PNAS article by Pisitkun et al demonstrates that this is the case; the vesicles are secreted by tubular epithelial cells at the apical surface and…
I’m suffering from information overload after my first day at the 2008 ASN in Philadelphia, PA. I attended a series of great talks and have a whole list of possible blog topics in my notebook. For now, I’ll…
I’m reporting LIVE from the American Society of Nephrology convention in Philadelphia, PA. I’ll be blogging from here as time & internet connectivity permit. The conference starts in earnest tomorrow morning. Until then: common drug interactions for TACROLIMUS…
I saw a patient in the renal transplant clinic today for evaluation to get onto the kidney transplant list, as he is just around the corner to starting dialysis (actually, he may actually start tonight since his routine…