I'm Dr. Joshua Schwimmer, a nephrologist and internal medicine physician in New York City. • Kidney Notes was the first active nephrology blog. (Trivia: Kidney Notes is so old that the National Library of Medicine still uses it as an example of how to formally cite blogs.) • Professionally, you can find me at Kidney.nyc. • Kidney Notes is for educational purposes only, not medical advice. Consult qualified health care professionals. See disclaimer.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Don't Ask Patients Whether They Have Frothy Urine

Really. As a screening question for lots of protein in the urine, it's useless. It's not worth the time it takes to ask. If you want to know, perform a urinalysis. But if a patient spontaneously says, "Hey, my urine has foam like the head on top of a beer," that's a different story.

Related Link: Patient Information on Kidney Disease