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…
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…
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…
Is something missing in your life? Is it the opportunity to take multiple-choice exams? If so, check out this 10-question ASN-sponsored practice test designed to prepare Nephrology Fellows to be ready for the upcoming Nephrology Boards in November….
Mycophenolic acid is a commonly encountered medication in nephrology. In addition to its use in the vast majority of kidney transplant recipients as part of the immunosuppressive regimen, it is also gaining popularity in the treatment of immune-mediated…
Clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of various therapies of membranous nephropathy is a tricky business, given the natural history of the disease: because about 1/3 of patients spontaneously remit, it is often difficult to say that a patient’s…
Cytoxan is a very potent but also potentially toxic medication used for a variety of immune-mediated (and nephrology-relevant) diseases. It is often classified as a “cytotoxic agent”, as it works as an alkylating agent that explains its utility…
HMG coA-reductase inhibitors (a.k.a. “statins”) are one of the most successful drugs in recent history…one does not have to look far to find good, solid randomized, controlled trials touting the benefits of statin therapy in any number of…
This week’s Lancet has an interesting article from The Indian Polycap Study (TIPS), in which investigators tested the efficacy and tolerability of a single pill containing up to FIVE different cardiovascular medications: a beta-blocker, an ACE-inhibitor, a thiazide…
I didn’t learn this until recently, but some commonly used oral contraceptives–for example Yasmin-28 (the progestin-derivative drospirenone + ethinyl estradiol)–has some mineralocorticoid blocking effect, similar to that seen for spironolactone. It may therefore be associated with hyperkalemia, particularly…
