Latest Nephrology news and features
Latest Urology news and features
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June 01, 2013
The vow never to treat SRMs may seem hard to believe and self-defeating.
May 01, 2013
Two studies presented at the recent NKF Spring Clinical Meetings provide more evidence of a trend toward decreasing use of ESAs and decreasing hemoglobin levels.
April 01, 2013
Having just returned from the always-stimulating European Association of Urology annual congress, I'd like to share a few impressions.
March 01, 2013
Almost half a million Americans depend on chronic dialysis therapy to survive.
February 01, 2013
Physicians are more often defined by their ability to diagnose, treat, and research a disease than their willingness to manage its spectrum of risk.
January 01, 2013
How often have you met for business in a Starbucks, Coffee Bean, or any other coffee shop?
December 01, 2012
Kidney Week 2012, held in San Diego, is now history and as usual I like to reflect on the world's biggest and most prestigious meeting for kidney specialists.
November 01, 2012
Although data suggest that cancer rates are also higher in obese patients, the associations are largely based on observational/population studies.
September 30, 2012
Historically, foamy urine is considered a warning sign for probable kidney disease.
September 01, 2012
Cross-sectional imaging now substitutes for physical diagnosis in most emergency rooms.
August 01, 2012
In recent trips to India, China, Brazil, and other countries, I was intrigued by large numbers of patients with end-stage renal disease who underwent hemodialysis (HD) less frequently than three times a week.
July 01, 2012
In the past few years, urologists have seen some significant developments related to the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
June 01, 2012
Unfortunately, in the past few years, very few studies have looked at issues regarding gender and CKD, and of most concern, looking at response to therapy.
May 01, 2012
More than 1 million prostate biopsies are performed annually in the United States, predominantly driven by elevations in PSA.
April 01, 2012
As practicing clinicians in the United States, we generally feel privileged, with access to a highly developed and pioneering medical care system along with an advanced and cutting-edge technology in the world's largest economy.
March 01, 2012
The March issue features coverage of the 2012 Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium, which was held in San Francisco.
February 01, 2012
How often do you face with the unpleasant task of waking a sleeping patient during your busy rounds? It happens frequently to many clinicians during their inpatient rounds in the hospital.
January 01, 2012
The start of 2012 is a good time to look back on the previous year to see the current state of nephrology. What have been the important findings that occurred in the past year, and what do we have to look forward to in the year ahead?
November 21, 2011
According to current estimates, kidney stones will develop in one in 10 people during their lifetime. This translates into nearly 30 million people in the United States. Clearly, prevention is paramount when dealing with kidney stones.
November 01, 2011
Individuals, businesses and nations grapple with how to measure success. Are similar productivity measures warranted in medicine?
September 01, 2011
Renal & Urology News was established in 2002 based on recognition of natural synergies of nephrology and urology. The insight was not immediately intuitive, as care delivery remained largely specialty-based.
August 15, 2011
Traditional nephrology training makes us believe that it is good practice to start maintenance dialysis therapy sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, recent data indicate that we may encounter yet another "old-practice-was-wrong" paradigm shift.
Incidentally detected renal tumors are increasingly diagnosed in patients with chronic kidney disease.
April 18, 2011
Nephrologists should rethink the screening level and offer a more conservative and meaningful cutoff level, such as an eGFR of 45.
March 14, 2011
Practicing nephrologists are frequently consulted to evaluate acute kidney injury (AKI) as inpatient cases.
February 24, 2011
The role of PSA as a cancer screening tool has recently been evaluated by several large high profile studies with varying interpretations of the data. Regardless of where one stands on the debate, among the clinical dilemmas of PSA-based screening is the negative biopsy conundrum where the reality remains that the best one can offer is, "Good news Mr. Smith, I don't think you have prostate cancer."
November 11, 2010
The advantages of this emerging specialty are clear to those involved in vascular access care, but some potential downsides must be considered.
November 02, 2010
The ongoing controversy as to whether premalignant, prostatic lesions are associated with increase risk of developing cancer.
Many Americans harbor fears about the Canadian health care system, and I would like to clear up some misconceptions.
April 26, 2010
The pending legislation on health care reform can be polarizing, but the motivation supporting it is not.
An international research team have identified a number of families suffering from a mutation in the signal peptide of the renin gene that lead to the development of autosomal dominant CKD.
March 26, 2010
Who could have guessed that one day physicians would be paid based on the outcomes of patients under their care? This is the imminent reality in nephrology.
January 27, 2010
One of recent challenges in nephrology and other internal medicine subspecialties is providing care to an increasing number of patients with chronic disease states and wasting syndrome.
Nephrologists propose critical action eGFR thresholds to guide management of kidney disease patients.
November 18, 2009
In the absence of level I evidence, physician treatment recommendations are subject not only to the objective (interpretations of the cohort literature and practice guidelines) but also the subjective (training patterns, comfort levels, biases and individual experiences).
October 16, 2009
Overnutrition is a major problem in the general population and a serious risk for metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and death.
October 08, 2009
Many nephrologists feel increasingly bewildered by heightened discussion about the upcoming bundling system for dialysis patients. The dialysis industry is a unique and giant enterprise serving nearly a half million Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
August 18, 2009
The imperfections of our nation's delivery of health care have long been recognized. From poor access for the underinsured and uninsured to potential overutilization by the worried well-insured, the issue has risen to political prominence, with its costs front and center.
April 29, 2009
In light of changes in Medicare policies related to ESRD, nephrologists will be called on to play an expanded leadership role in dialysis centers.
April 03, 2009
The growth in the number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has tapered and is being offset by continuous improvements in survival. The result is a continued steady increase in the number of patients requiring renal replacement therapy.
February 23, 2009
Two articles in the December 2008 issue of Renal & Urology News add to mounting evidence of the need for medical liability reform, specifically no-fault compensation for medical injuries.
February 03, 2009
The Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Program is one of the most significant developments in the history of U.S. health care and an unqualified success.
January 16, 2009
The risk of a man's developing prostate cancer is approximately 18%. Whereas it has been estimated that as much as 60% of this risk is due to environmental exposure (J Urol. 2007;178:S9-S13), developing strategies to mitigate this risk is an important public heath concern.
January 09, 2009
In the past year, an important landmark study demonstrated therapeutic equivalence of the ACE inhibitor ramipril and the angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan in reducing the risk of all forms of atherosclerotic events.
October 01, 2008
A highly respected senior nephrologist and renowned opinion leader, who also happened to be my good old friend and colleague, asked me why I and some other academicians are involved in supporting such non-peer-reviewed journals as Renal & Urology News (RUN).
October 01, 2008
In mid-July 2008, 90,000 Americans were listed by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN) as waiting for a deceased donor kidney.
October 01, 2008
Nephrologists want to improve outcomes and quality of life for renal disease patients through research, but we are faced with major hurdles.
With upper tract transitional cell carcinoma (UTTCC), vigilance is the watchword. Detecting this cancer earlier may directly impact patient survival. According to the American Cancer Society, 54,390 new cases and 14,100 deaths in the United States will occur during 2008.
September 01, 2008
Decreases in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) are associated with higher risks of cardiovascular events, hospitalizations, and premature death (N Engl J Med. 2004;351:1296-1305).
Practicing evidence-based medicine can be difficult in nephrology, where randomized controlled trials are few and far between. In general, the more that trials use hard outcomes such as morbidity and mortality, the greater our confidence that the therapies will have an impact on patients' lives. Using end points such as these, however, often require large sample sizes.
