Six out of 21 patients attending maintenance hemodialysis had uremic pericarditis. Three patients had one or more recurrences of pericarditis while under regular intermittent dialysis. Two patients developed pericardial effusion and one of them had ascites. Augmented hemodialysis was successful in treating uremic pericarditis even in patients with pericardial effusion. The single instance of ascites was also controlled by augmented hemodialysis.

Fifty-six patients with unilateral hydronephrosis were the subject of this study. The patients were classified into 4 groups according to the stage of hydronephrosis as assessed by radiological criteria. Split kidney function, histopathological studies, and measurement of intraureteral pressure were performed. Urinary Bilharziasis was held responsible for obstructive nephropathy in 77% of cases. Complicating urinary infection was present in 66%. The study has shown that creatinine excretion was slightly decreased in early, moderate, and moderately advanced hydronephrosis. On the other hand, a marked lowering of urine osmolality was found even in the early stages of hydronephrosis. The hydronephrotic kidney was found to be a salt losing one only in early, moderate, and moderately advanced hydronephroses, but not in the very advanced cases. The histopathological changes were mainly tubular, but some cases showed proliferative changes in the glomeruli. Eradication of urinary Bilharziasis and early treatment of this disease would markedly contribute to the prevention of obstructive nephropathies in countries where this disease is endemic.

No abstract

No abstract

The role of the split kidney function tests in the diagnosis of renal hypertension is reviewed, and a new technique is described which is designed to diminish the number of false negative results sometimes encountered in unilateral pyelonephritis and segmental renal arterial stenosis. Split kidney function tests still have an important role in diagnosis of renal hypertension, particularly when the results of other investigations are equivocal and when facilities for differential renal renin assay are not available.