A Nephrology On-Demand publication. Visit us @ myNOD.org or on Twitter @nephOnDemand to learn more.

The Nephrology On-Demand Plus iOS App keeps you connected w/ all the latest teaching resources. Download the newest version @ goo.gl/tfSAQT

Contributors: A Bansal (U of Pennsylvania) | P Dedhia (U of Cincinnati) | A Elebiary (Lahey Clinic) | X Vela (U of El Salvador) | D Thomson (ECU) | P Jawa (ECU) | S Sridharan (Lister Hospital, UK) | F Iannuzsella (IRCCS, Italy) | D Mitema (Johns Hopkins U) | Malvinder Parmar (Northern Ontario, Canada)

#KidneyKONNECTION

Welcome to the start of a new academic year! This year, we @ #KidneyKonnection have a new set of features and specials to enhance your nephrology learning. Coming off a great inaugural year in which we had over 2000 readers (online and print), #KidneyKonnection Volume 2 will be bolder and fresher.

The new #KidneyKonnection begins with its title. You'll notice that the title is now a Twitter hashtag. Use #KidneyKonnection anytime you want to communicate with the global readership. We'll take the best tweets and publish them (in print) in a later issue.

The next striking change is our new look. It's cleaner, crisper, and more vibrant than Volume 1. The new

appearance makes the online and print versions even more visually stunning than ever before.

Finally, we're introducing new features and enhancing others. We're keeping our most popular feature, Lit in a Minute, and enhancing it with Selfies, a collection of phenomenal high-resolution images of the kidney. Selfies will make you look at the kidney in a whole new way. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Welcome to the 2nd volume of #KidneyKonnection: an (r)evolution in nephrology education.

BETTER THAN EVER

For decades kidney docs have relied upon resin therapy to manage hyperkalemia in advanced & end-stage kidney disease patients. The most common resin used, kayexalate, surprisingly has little evidence to support its effectiveness. Most of its benefits are anecdotally reported, as are the real and horrific

THE HARMONIZE TRIAL

Issue 1 Volume 2 Year 2015

URL http://goo.gl/QDSB5B

Editor: Tejas Desai | Chief: Cynthia Christiano | Free subscription by emailing myFellowship@ecu.edu

Amar Bansal

Cynthia Christiano

Paras Dedhia

Ahmed Elebiary

Francesco Iannuzzella

Pankaj Jawa

Donald Mitema

Malvinder Parmar

Siva Sridharan

Denise Thomson

Xavier Vela

Tejas Desai

LIT IN A MINUTE

(continued next page)

PMID: 25402495

BACK TO SCHOOL...ONLINE

SELFIESDEPOSITS

An electron micrograph of a sub-epithelial dense deposit. A podocyte is seen in the bottom left quadrant. Adjacent to the dense deposit are evenly-spaced protrusions -- the foot processes (red arrows). The thick gray stripe is the glomerular basement membrane, which is uniform in color (suggesting an absence of intramembranous deposits). There is speculation regarding the components of the dense deposit, but no single component has been consistently identified.

WE ASKED THE CONTRIBUTORS TO LIST SOME OF THEIR FAVORITE ONLINE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES IN NEPHROLOGY. HERE'S WHAT THEY SAID...

LIT IN A MINUTE

side effect of colonic necrosis. Thankfully, there's a promising drug that can manage hyperkalemia without the intestinal side effects...ZS-9. We first came to learn about ZS-9 in 2013. As an experimental compound, ZS-9 had a nine-times greater affinity for intestinal potassium than kayexalate (hence the #9 in the name). In late 2014, we learned of its name (sodium zirconium cyclosilicate) and that it could

reduce potassium levels far greater than placebo. The HARMONIZE trial randomized hyperkalemic patients (due to kidney disease or heart failure) into 1 of 4 dose escalated groups (0g, 5g, 10g, 15g). Potassium levels fell faster w/higher dosages of ZS-9 but without any major adverse events.

While HARMONIZE didn't compare ZS-9 against kayexalate, it is a promising trial

SPECIAL FEATURE

THE HARMONIZE TRIAL

both because of the effectiveness of the drug and its favorable side effect profile. Stay tuned for more trials & longer follow up periods using ZS-9.

(continued from previous page)

PMID: 25402495

Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School (1986)

Pubmed

Pubmed is a free resource that provides access to the primary literature. They provide nice abstracts that I can quickly skim before deciding to delve deeper into the paper.

Pocket Medicine by the MGH

This is a great resource for when you're just starting out your training. It gives you all the information you need to survive your first few weeks on the wards.

Nephrology On-Demand Plus App

This is a great resource to learn about Nephrology, no matter your background. The 10-Minute Round videos are probably the best -- they teach you something in Nephrology in ~ 10 minutes, which is key for a busy doc.

NKF eGFR Calculator

This is a nifty app that estimates GFR using

different calculators, including the CKD Epi, MDRD, & Cockroft-Gault formulas. And For those involved in the care of the pediatric population, the revised Bedside Schwarz formula is included too.

The Online Global Kidney Academy

A great resource if you're looking for continuing education in Nephrology. So much content is updated daily & there's lots of participation by experts & students.

Medscape Mobile

This app lets you connect w/Nephrology & other specialities. The content is fresh & has drug/disease reference tools as well as CME courses.