A patient who had been working in a recycling company that handled thermometers presented with fever, dry cough, fatigue and rash. Based on imaging (CXR showed massive radio-opaque material in the lungs, right atrium and right ventricle; skeletal…
In the week that Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO of Apple, it seems appropriate to tip our cap to that guru of simplicity, and take a stripped down, simplified approach to one of the biggest quagmires in…
Although the term Post-transplant Lymphoproliferative Disease (PTLD) encompasses all lymphoproliferative disorders post transplant, it generally refers to extra-nodal B-cell lymphomas due to Ebstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. PTLD is a B-cell disease caused by iatrogenic T-cell dysfunction: in people…
In something of a first for Nephrology, today sees the simultaneous release of a powerful tool for predicting ESRD risk in CKD patients at the World Congress of Nephrology, in JAMA and as a mobile application (free download; see…
Critically ill patients receiving continuous renal replacement therapy are frequently given heparin to maintain circuit patency. In the presence of active HIT-II or HITT, even in the absence of clinical thrombosis, systemic anticoagulation with a direct thrombin inhibitor…
I’ve always been skeptical about ACE inhibitors as a cause of hyponatremia, despite there being almost 20 case reports of this complication in the literature. Given the fact that so many patients I see are taking an ACE…
Sometimes overlooked, QT interval abnormalities, namely prolongation and dispersion, are important predictors of sudden death to watch out for in the dialysis unit. Of these two, prolongation of the QT interval is the better studied. The QT interval is…
Continuing the theme of useful Nephrology bedside clinical signs, today we’ll focus on band keratopathy (BK). Often overlooked, this is a band of calcium deposition across the central cornea commonly seen in patients with advanced CKD. It reflects…
Following on from Finnian’s last post, here are some remarkable videos from the 1950’s on JVP examination (physical examination of JVP begins at 3:38):
