Twitter Chat Tonight, Tuesday Feb 24 about World Kidney Day

I have been involved in Nephrology social media for years now, and it has been rewarding seeing the global community of nephrologists connect and develop a voice over that time.

While social media in general and Twitter in particular was once thought of as a time waster, it is now recognized as critical communication channel that allows back and forth communication as well as side to side communication.

First order communication: traditional top down

Second order communication: back and forth

Third order communication: back and forth and side to side

The side to side communication is what builds the community and is what twitter excels at. Imagine how boring the NephJC chats wold be if the only communication you saw was from the NephJC host? The whole point of the chat is to leverage the diversity of expertise in the crowd. 

Tonight will be a first in social media. Representatives from the International Society of Nephrology, The American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation will be convening to discuss the upcoming World Kidney Day. It should be a great discussion. Please join us in (dare I say?) this historic moment. The discussion starts at 9PM EST and the hashtag is:

#WorldKidneyDay

More information, including who the representatives are, is available on Medium.

Must know facts about albumin! Number seven will blow you away!

Albumin is made in hepatocytes at a rate of 200 mg/kg/day - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Improving albumin levels among hemodialysis patients

1. Albumin is made in hepatocytes at a rate of 200 mg/kg/day 
1. or 14 g in 70 kg person
2. Total body albumin is 4-5 g/kg
3. 40-45% of albumin is in the intravascular space
4. Normal albumin concentration in the interstitial space is 
1. 0.7 in fat and 
2. 1.3 in skeletal muscle
5. Albumin has a half life of 2 to 3 weeks
6. The drop in albumin with inflammation is due to: 
1. reduced synthesis and 
2. increased fractional catabolic rate (FCR)
7. Intradialytic weight gain of 2.8 liters (4% in a 70 kg man) will dilute the albumin down 0.8 g/dL 

Refs

Improving albumin levels among hemodialysis patients (PubMed)

Measurement of interstitial albumin in human skeletal muscle and adipose tissue by open-flow micro perfusion (PubMed)

Potassium Wars, The Grand Rounds Presentation.

Last week I delivered my grand rounds to both St John Hospital and Providence Hospital. This grand rounds on Kayexalate and the new therapies to increase colonic potassium clearance. Take a look. I hope you enjoy. I have more to say about this talk, and hopefully I will do a directors commentary of the presentation. I have 99 problems but have no for that time now.

Potassium Wars, The Native Keynote file (431 mb) Alternative link.zip (307 mb)
Potassium Wars, The PDF of the Keynote (184 mb)
Potassium Wars, The Movie, It's almost like being there (1.05 gb)

Or stream it:

K wars, The Movie from joel topf on Vimeo.