Anti-Nephrin Antibodies in Minimal Change Disease
Approach to the Patient with Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Dysfunction- Part 1
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Conferences, Courses, & Grants
FOAMed
Interventional Nephrology Series
Focus on Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Nephrology (POCUN) Series
Kidney Biopsy of the Month Series
Differential Diagnosis for Large Kidneys
The differential diagnosis for large kidneys (often demonstrated on renal ultrasound) is interesting, as there are a few conditions which are especially associated with this finding. Of course, with any type of chronic damage, the kidneys tend to…
Double Antibody Disease
The incidence of ANCA-positive disease is in the ballpark of 1:10,000. The incidence of anti-GBM disease is even more rare, at about 1:1,000,000. One would expect if these 2 disease-causing antibodies were entirely independent of one another, the…
Ret & Kidney Development
The Ret gene plays an integral role in kidney development. As is covered in any basic embryology class, the cross-talk between the ureteric bud (destined to become the collecting system of the kidney) and the metanephrogenic mesenchyme (destined…
The Brenner Hypothesis
The Brenner Hypothesis–developed by Barry Brenner of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, author of the well-known Brenner & Rector “The Kidney” textbook–states that individuals with a congenital reduction in nephron number have a much greater likelihood of developing…
Fistula First Controversy
In 2003, the Fistula First Initiative was enacted, in which an attempt is actively being made to get as many dialysis patients as possible to get dialyzed via an AV fistula. As AV fistulas have been perceived to…
Vancomycin & Red Man Syndrome
Once a frequent culprit of acute interstitial nephritis, vancomycin is a very rare cause of renal failure with newer formulations which use a different vehicle for its iv administration. It still however has the potential to cause the…
Neonatal Lupus
Neonatal lupus occurs when autoantibodies are transmitted from the mother to the fetus; it usually manifests as a transient and mild lupoid rash which lasts 3-6 months, but can also result in more serious manifestations such as congenital…
Treating Lupus Nephritis During Pregnancy
It is somewhat controversial whether or not pregnant women with lupus experience flares more frequently than their non-pregnant counterparts. Regardless, however, the issue of a lupus flare in a pregnant patient is not uncommon, especially considering that the…
Sporadic Hypocalcemia and Gadolinium
It turns out that not only do gadolinium-based contrast agents result in nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), but certain ones can also interfere with some of the common assays for quantifying serum calcium, leading to sporadic hypocalcemia. The two…
Proof That Kidneys Are Important
As a 2nd year nephrology fellow I am now doing some work in a lab which studies zebrafish kidney development. Here is an example of a control (wild-type) zebrafish at 54 hours post-fertilization. If you use a morpholino…