Should Calcium-Based Phosphate Binders Be Used in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease? Phosphate retention develops early in chronic kidney disease (CKD) due to the reduction in the glomerular filtration rate…
Is There a Risk to Rapidly Lowering the Plasma Potassium in Patients with Hyperkalemia? Hyperkalemia is one of the most common and serious metabolic complications in patients with chronic kidney…
Is Computed Tomography with Contrast or Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Contrast Preferred in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease? This is a clinical question that keeps coming up on nephrology rounds….
Is There Any Advantage to Colloids versus Crystalloids for Volume Repletion? Rapid volume repletion is indicated in patients with severe hypovolemic or septic shock, as a delay in therapy can…
When Does Metabolic Acidosis Require Treatment with Bicarbonate? Administration of bicarbonate in patients with metabolic acidosis is an area of medicine that has resulted in some confusion for trainees over…
What Exactly Is Dialysis and When Is It Needed? A frequent reason for inpatient nephrology consultation is either a need for dialysis (in a patient with end-stage renal disease [ESRD]…
Is It “Acute Renal Failure” or “Acute Kidney Injury”? For decades, nephrologists used the term acute renal failure (ARF), defined as a sudden (within hours to days) decrease in renal…
How Does One Interpret the Urine Anion Gap and Urine Osmolal Gap? The serum anion gap (AG) is a time-honored tool in nephrology. As discussed in Chapter 6, the AG…
What Is Free Water Clearance and How Useful Is It? Over 50 years ago, Homer Smith (1952) introduced the concept that the urine flow could be thought of as two…
Why Are Disorders of Sodium Concentration So Difficult? There are two important reasons why sodium concentration disorders (dysnatremias) are challenging. First, making the correct clinical diagnosis can be difficult. Second,…
