This book started out as a "Manual. " The idea was to offer straightforward instruction on how to handle patients in whom renal function is altered by intrinsic as well as systemic or extrarenal disease. While we have attempted to provide simple approaches to most conditions, we have gone beyond that and offer here more detailed description of pathophysiology, diagnosis and therapy. Thus, the "Manual" has become a Handbook. In so doing we hope we have widened the audience for which the book may be useful. As it now stands, we envision that students, house staff, nephrology trainees,...

Frequently attempts to design experiments utilizing the methodology de- scribed in articles in trade journals can be frustrating. Description of procedures, because of space constraints, are not always complete. The present volume attempts to bring together in one reference source many of the techniques which are utilized in the study of the kidney. It provides a thorough compendium of research tools, framed by the critical analysis of the theoretical background of renal physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology discussed in Volume 4A. Some areas previously dealt with are not covered from a...

In the years since Homer Smith did his pioneering work in renal physiology, interest in the kidney has grown steadily and robustly. That this wondrously designed machine-in addition to its filtering, secreting, and reabsorptive functions-can serve as an important endocrine organ has made it the investiga- tive concern of researchers from a variety of disciplines. Not surprisingly in this era of molecular biology, attempts have been made to understand the orderly functions of the kidney in biochemical and molecular terms, and this has led to the steady entry of renal physiologists and...