Category: Nephrology
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Renal reminiscences
Medical conferences are an opportunity to travel and to meet. During the early days when renal transplantation, dialysis, and biopsy revolutionized nephrology, I had the opportunity to meet many members of the new discipline. I once listened to Jean Hamburger lecture about kidney transplants. I heard Robert Schrier lecture on salt and water. One summer…
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The discovery of urea and the end of vitalism
Mostafa ElbabaDoha, Qatar In history, ancient chemistry is known as “alchemy.” It is different than modern chemistry since it was mixed with philosophy and pseudoscience, although it is considered a protoscience. Alchemy failed to explain the nature of matter and its transformations. However, by experimentation and recording the results, alchemists set the stage for modern…
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Frank Parsons—A hemodialysis pioneer
Eric WillUnited Kingdom “Disillusion can become itself an illusion if we rest in it.”— TS Eliot Frank Maudsley Parsons (1915–1989) was an English pioneer of hemodialysis in the mid-1950s. His contribution is well known to nephrologists, but came at a personal cost in recognition that he expressed in his published journal affiliations. Context Leeds General…
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When it rains, it pours
Giulio NicitaFlorence, Italy 1983 Giuseppe’s shouts and laughter echoed in the long corridor as he ran after the ball, kicking it toward his mother with his slippered foot. Attracted by the noise, but silently sliding along the polished floor, the austere figure of Sister Leonia appeared, her face surrounded by her veil. With a smile…
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Dr. Jochem Hoyer’s singular act of altruism
Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden Operating theatre. Photo by Piotr Bodzek. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’” — Martin Luther King, Jr. Kidney transplantation is the preferred form of treatment for chronic, permanent renal failure. Transplanted patients have better long-term survival than…
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Sir George Pickering and the low salt diet
Nicolas Roberto Robles Badajoz, Spain Figure 1. St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, UK. Photo by Enric likes Funk. 2008. Via Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 2.0. As a young man George Pickering was interested in his native Northumbrian countryside and intended to study agriculture. Persuaded later to read for a degree in biochemistry or physiology, he…
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Harry Goldblatt and the kidney
Dr. Harry Goldblatt. 1964. Via the National Library of Medicine. In 1928 Dr. Harry Goldblatt applied silver clamps experimentally to the renal arteries of dogs and observed a significant and sustained rise in blood pressure. His main interest as a researcher was to find a cause for hypertension, a disease for which effective treatment was…
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A brief history of kidney transplantation
Laura Carreras-Planella Marcella Franquesa Ricardo Lauzurica Francesc E. Borràs Barcelona, Spain We may think of renal transplantation as routine therapy today, but this procedure has taken centuries to develop and is marked by important events in the history of science. An ancient description of the kidneys is found in the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, dated…