Preface

The first edition of Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Nephrology & Hypertension features practical, up-to-date, referenced information on the care of patients with diseases involving the kidneys and hypertension. It also covers dialysis and transplantation, as well as new areas of specialization, such as critical care nephrology and interventional nephrology. This book emphasizes the clinical aspects of renal care while also presenting important underlying principles. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Nephrology & Hypertension provides a practical guide to diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of the medical problems of all adult patients in an easy-to-use and readable format.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

In the tradition of all Lange medical books, this new Current in Nephrology and Hypertension is a concise yet comprehensive source of up-to-date information. For medical students, it can serve as an authoritative introduction to the specialty of nephrology and an excellent resource for reference and review. Residents in internal medicine (and other specialties) and most especially, nephrology fellows in training, will appreciate the detailed descriptions of diseases and diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. General internists, family practitioners, hospitalists, nurses and nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other allied health-care providers who work with patients with kidney diseases will find this a very useful reference on management aspects of renal medicine. Moreover, patients and their family members who seek information about the nature of specific diseases and their diagnosis and treatment may also find this book to be a valuable resource.

COVERAGE

Fifty-nine chapters cover a wide range of topics, including fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base disorders, acute and chronic kidney failure, glomerular and tubulointerstitial diseases, hypertension, systemic diseases with renal manifestations, renal replacement therapies, renal transplantation, geriatric nephrology, and interventional nephrology.

These and many other diseases are covered in a crisp and concise manner. Striking just the right balance between comprehensiveness and convenience, Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Nephrology & Hypertension emphasizes the practical features of clinical diagnosis and patient management while providing a comprehensive discussion of pathophysiology and relevant basic and clinical science. With its consistent formatting chapter by chapter, this text makes it simple to locate the practical information you need on diagnosis, testing, disease processes, and up-to-date treatment and management strategies.

The book has been designed to meet the clinician's need for an immediate refresher in the clinic as well as to serve as an accessible text for thorough review of the specialty for the boards. The concise presentation is ideally suited for rapid acquisition of informatio by the busy practitioner.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank our contributing authors for devoting their precious time and offering their wealth of knowledge in the process of completing this important book. These authors have contributed countless hours of work in regularly reading and reviewing the literature in this specialty, and we have all benefited from their clinical wisdom and commitment.

We are especially grateful to two authors who have helped in reviewing and editing selected sections of the book: Dr. Sharon Adler, for her valuable contributions to the chapters on Glomerular Diseases, and Dr. George Bakris, for recommending excellent contributors for the chapters on Hypertension.

We would like to thank Harriet Lebowitz for her expert assistance in managing the flow of manuscripts and materials among the chapter authors, editors, and publisher. Her attention to detail was enormously helpful. This book would not have been completed without the help of Arline Keithe, Mary Saggese, Satvinder Kaur, and of course, the unwavering support of James Shanahan.

Edgar V. Lerma, MD
Jeffrey S. Berns, MD
Allen R. Nissenson, MD
December, 2008