Background
Brian Rifkin
Why Can’t I Quit You: Steroid Tapering in ...

This week, we will discuss the best schedule for tapering steroids in adult patients with podocytopathies (MCD/FSGS).

Why Can’t I Quit You: Steroid Tapering in Adults with Podocytopathies (START)
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joel topf
NephJC 2026 Fall Pledge Drive

Help keep NephJC a vital, original, and unbiased source of medical education.

NephJC 2026 Fall Pledge Drive
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Brian Rifkin
REFINe-ing AI’s Role in Nephrology Diagnosis

This week, we will discuss the use of LLMs for the diagnosis of complex nephrology cases. Can AI help nephrologists nail the correct diagnosis?

REFINe-ing AI’s Role in Nephrology Diagnosis
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Akshaya J
Too sweet to be true? Prophylactic SGLT2 ...

MERCURI-2 reports that dapagliflozin cuts postoperative AKI after cardiac surgery, but the headline result is mostly a urine-output story, not a creatinine one. That matters: urine output after surgery is easily swayed by anesthesia, fluid shifts, vasopressors, and a diuretic drug in the mix. Until dapagliflozin shows it protects kidney function, not just urine output.

Too sweet to be true? Prophylactic SGLT2 inhibitors before cardiac surgery
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Cristina Adriana Popa
Buffering without benefit? The SODa-BIC study

This week, we will discuss SODaBIC trial: with ICU acidosis driven by multiple overlapping mechanisms, is bicarbonate infusion supported by robust evidence, or does it persist mainly out of habit rather than physiology?

Buffering without benefit? The SODa-BIC study

The Dual Dustat Visual abstracts

UPDATE:

On April 6, 2021 Fibrogen announced that the analysis of the cardiovascular outcomes was adjusted after the data was unblinded. When the data was reanalyzed without this adjustment roxadustat is less impactful. Importantly for this NephJC discussion, the previously impressive MACE and MACE+ advantage for incident dialysis is no longer found. Roxadustat remains non-inferior in all outcomes, though the confidence intervals have widened.

The Incident dialysis visual abstract has been updated to reflect this change.

At their first attempt, the NSMC interns Alicja Rosolowska and Keia Sanderson have created beautiful visual abstract


The Roxadustat Chronicles: A Two-Article NephJC

The Roxadustat Chronicles: A Two-Article NephJC

The HIF inhibitor trials were announced almost a year and half ago at KidneyWk 2019. We are finally seeing the trials get published. Here are the first two, a sub-group analysis of three dialysis studies focused on incident dialysis patients and a placebo controlled pre-dialysis study.