Why do we care about hypomagnesemia? And why are cardiologists so eager to replete the serum magnesium above 2.0 mg/dL? Very low serum Mg can result in serious cardiovascular and CNS effects. Specifically, hypomagnesemia can cause QRS widening…
While there are a number of conditions which can cause the combination of hypokalemia and metabolic alkalosis there are a limited number of disease processes which lead to hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, AND hypertension. In order to have hypertension…
Back from the 2009 ASN Meeting in San Diego! I’ll admit to a few lapses in blogging, but the meeting kept me pretty busy. Thanks to everybody who stopped by the Renal Fellow Network poster and their encouraging…
File “Gordon Syndrome” under “interesting causes of hyperkalemia and metabolic acidosis you may never see.” Also called pseudohypoaldosteronism type II, Gordon Syndrome is relevant less so for the number of patients afflicted but more due to the interesting…
There are a variety of drugs which can result in hyperkalemia, via a variety of mechanisms. Here are a list of some of the common offenders, categorized loosely based on mechanism, though admittedly there is some overlap between…
The Dead Sea, located between Israel and Jordan, is considered one the saltiest bodies of water on earth, giving swimmers a peculiar buoyancy when immersed. Interestingly, the electrolyte composition of the Dead Sea is quite different from that…
There are some interesting acid-base perturbations that can take place in the setting of eating disorders and/or surreptitious use of substances used to intentionally lose weight. Due to the surreptitious nature of many of these disorders, some lab…
Bizarre case of hypernatremia: a suicide attempt by a 73 year-old Japanese man in which the individual drank massive amounts of soy sauce. According to this 2006 Neurology paper by Machino et al, the patient presented with vomiting,…
Mutations in the CFTR gene are responsible for cystic fibrosis. CFTR encodes a chloride transporter which in addition to its being expressed in the lungs and pancreas, is also found in the kidney. As I have blogged about previously,…
A relatively recent study by Bockenhauer et al in NEJM reports the identification of a new disease gene in a rare tubulopathy syndrome that sheds light on the physiologic mechanisms of salt transport in the kidney. The article…
