Gearoid did a nice job reviewing the recent exciting findings surrounding primary Focal Segment Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and I thought it would be a good opportunity to review some of the sometimes confusing terminology and clinical basics. To start,…
I will share with you some of the tips I learned from my pathologist friend Ibrahim Batal.When evaluating an allograft kidney biopsy for acute changes, you should:First, scan at low power magnification, look for arteries, check for necrosis…
Just heard an interesting talk on endothelial dysfunction and its relation to nephrology. One thing I learned is that the vascular endothelium is actually “hairy”, as demonstrated from this electron micrograph (taken from this website). These little hairs…
Cryoglobulinemia is characterized by the presence of circulating antibodies which precipitate at cooler temperatures, and not infrequently leads to renal failure/glomerulonephritis. The stereotypical histologic lesion of cryoglobulinemia is membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, which takes the appearance on light microscopy of…
“Osmotic nephrosis” is a term which describes a common form of renal tubular injury in response to hyperosmolar substances. It is especially relevant to iv contrast nephropathy, and was first observed in animals and human patients infused with…
BK Nephropathy refers to damage suffered to a renal allograft as a result of the polyomavirus BK virus. It is named based on the fact that it was originally isolated in the urine of a kidney transplant…
One of the hot topics in Nephrology over the past few years has been the epidemiologic and histopathologic studies suggesting oral sodium phosphate colonoscopy preparations as a cause of acute phosphate nephropathy. As evidence continued to mount, the…
Trick question: where was the 9th Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology in 2007 held? Hint: it wasn’t Banff (the beautiful national park in western Canada). Answer: La Coruna, Spain. At this conference a consensus regarding the histopathologic classification…
I recently had to look up the differential diagnosis of nodular glomerulosclerosis: we had recently sent a clinic patient to undergo a renal biopsy based on a history of nephrotic-range proteinuria (urine protein to creatinine ratio of about…
I heard a lecture not too long ago on atheroembolic renal disease which claimed that atheroembolic renal disease is to nephrology as sarcoidosis is to internal medicine. That is to say, it can present in a myriad of…
