“Find locations near you for both the seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccine http://bit.ly/4nOr53” -@google

Today's xkcd (my favorite webcomic): "Organ Donor." http://xkcd.com/659/

Halloween at the White House

P103109PS-0527, originally uploaded by The White House.

"If Health Care Is Going to Change, Dr. Brent James's Ideas Will Change It" - NYT http://ping.fm/jrz8Y

Receiving the H1N1 nasal vaccine is anticlimactic. "Flu nasal drowning" was a misnomer.

The Uroplakins (Via the Renal Fellow Network)

The uroplakins form tiny, hexagonal arrays of particles--visualized best by electron microscopy (see figure taken from this excellent recent KI review by Wu et al)--which comprise structures called "urothelial plaques" that overlie the plasma membrane of superficial umbrella cells of the urothelium...

Read more here.

Amazon Best Books of 2009: http://ping.fm/soOWG

Fall

Credit: Baard Overgaard Hansen http://www.pixum.com

http://bestc.am/LUN5

Bodybuilding with steroids damages kidneys. http://ping.fm/cgLJs (One of the more unusual & controversial papers I've co-authored.)

WolframAlpha Searches: Potassium in Lime Juice? http://ping.fm/kdW7Q

"Does anyone have any ideas about how to reconstruct my abdomen?" Heart-wrenching necrotizing fasciitis case in NEJM. http://ping.fm/PCQHp

Atypical Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome in the New England Journal of Medicine

Image by roboonya via Flickr

Every physician has diseases they see improbably often. For me, one of these conditions is hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Since writing one of my first papers on HUS as a resident — "De novo thrombotic microangiopathy in renal transplant recipients" — I've seen way more of it than you'd expect.

For kidney fans, this review article on atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome in this month's New England Journal of Medicine (subscription required) is a must read. It details recent advances in the genetics of atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome. What was previously a confusing mess of similar-appearing diseases — hemolytic-uremic syndrome, atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome, drug-induced hemolytic-uremic syndrome, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura — may finally be understandable.

Related: A List of Kidney Diseases

Flu Virus Animation

Via NPR.

Dr. Brad Berk, University of Rochester Medical Center CEO, discusses his spinal cord injury on YouTube: http://ping.fm/x7hp2

David Pogue Interviews Dr. Blumenthal, US Electronic Medical Records Czar http://ping.fm/Y7t1G

The Electrolyte Composition of the Dead Sea. http://ping.fm/muQcP

List of Kidney Diseases Updated

Image via Wikipedia

I've updated the list of kidney diseases for patients. Please let me know if I missed anything.

“Medical students at UMDNJ required to have an Apple iPhone or iPod touch http://bit.ly/103xEw” -@DrJosephKim

A med/peds hospitalist writes on resources for nephrology: http://ping.fm/94qYQ

"Regulation Works."

"Regulation works." (via @jayparkinson)