Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Kidney stone question


Great question.

I would look at the March 2008 Seminars in Nephrology which is an entire issue devoted to nephrolithiasis.

The issue was guest edited by John Asplin, one of the best teachers I had during my fellowship. We co-authored a chapter on potassium and I tutored medical students for his renal physiology class. He is medical director of Litholink, a independent clinical lab which provides deep clinical information on the metabolic abnormalities found in patients with kidney stones. I use litholink for all of my stone patients and love it.





It also has multiple articles by Fred Coe and Elaine Worcester. Dr. Coe ran a weekly fluid and electrolyte conference that was one of the highlights of my fellowship experience. Every week a fellow would bring a set of electrolytes and Coe would tell you all about the patient simply from the numbers. It was uncanny how good he was.

My favorite quote from Dr. Coe was:
What you do is serious nephrology [he was referring to acute and chronic renal failure]. What I do is just civilian nephrology. [referring to nephrolithiasis]
Elaine and I co-authored a chapter on calcium, magnesium and phosphorous. We had a great collegial relationship during my fellowship and only after I graduated did I realize how large she was in the field of nephrolithiasis.








Craig Langman also wrote one of the articles in this issue of Seminars in Nephrology. He is a pediatric nephrologist and I spent a couple of months with him at Children's Memorial during my second year of fellowship. He's a great teacher. He is now on the lecture circuit for Genzyme. If he comes to town, go. He's one of the great teachers in nephrology.

Update: Dr. Langman sent me a note stating that he is not "on the circuit." But my advice stands, if he comes to town, don't miss him.
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