Very cool project: The Nephrology Oral History Project. On their homepage you can access interviews with 14 different nephrologists who practiced during the early days of dialysis, as early as the 1950s and 1960s. It’s well-organized in that…
I had always assumed that the “Bence-Jones” protein–essentially, the demonstration of monoclonal light chains on urine protein electropheresis (UPEP)–was named after two doctors, Bence & Jones. However I recently found out that actually it was named after a…
A cool article from this month’s AJKD describes several of the Nephrology-related aphorisms originally penned by Hippocrates sometime around 400 BCE. These brief, pithy sayings probably represent the earliest attempts to understand the kidney in health and disease…
Pictured on the left is Bob Cratchit and his crippled son, Tiny Tim, two beloved characters from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In this fun 1992 article by the pediatrician D.L. Lewis, the case is made that Tiny…
Heard about a case of milk-alkali syndrome at Renal Grand Rounds yesterday. This is an interesting condition whose pathophysiologic mechanism really tests your knowledge of calcium and acid-base homeostasis. I won’t attempt to chart the pathway but a…
Did you know that the inventor of the popular sports drink “Gatorade” was a Nephrologist? The 2007 NY Times obituary of J. Robert Cade, the University of Florida nephrologist who concocted Gatorade, describes the story of the beginning…
The Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1895. A number of awards have been given to individuals whose research is inseparable from the field of Nephrology. Here are a few of the notable examples: 1. 2003 Nobel Prize…
Who was the first doctor to have the idea (and the audacity) to stick a needle into the kidney in order to obtain a tissue diagnosis of kidney disease? The “inventors of the renal biopsy” have been identified…
In honor of Presidents Day I did a quick search to see if any U.S. Presidents suffered from kidney ailments. The name I keep running across is Chester A. Arthur, the 21st President of the U.S., who is…
A few links for today, borrowing heavily from other Nephrology Blogs: There is an interesting interchange on Kidney Notes responding to some highly negative comments made about the field of Nephrology by a practicing nephrologist “Nephrogirl.” The Precious…
