On 2014 Aug 03, Swapnil Hiremath commented:

This review article was discussed on July 8th 2014 in the open online nephrology journal club, #NephJC, on twitter. Introductory comments are available at the PBFluids blog and at the NephJC website. It was a fascinating discussion, with participation from nephrologists around the world including the center of the epidemic in Central and South America. A transcript and a curated (i.e. Storified) version of the tweetchat are available from the NephJC website. The highlights of the tweetchat were:

• Mesoamerican nephropathy (or CKD of unknown etiology, CKDu) is increasingly recognized as an epidemic in Central American countries.
• Dr Johnson and colleagues present a very intriguing and novel hypothesis, based on repeated episodes of dehydration driving kidney damage, mediated by increased production of sorbitol, its conversion to fructose and downstream effects of fructose.
• The tweetchat participants found the hypothesis very interesting and physiologically fascinating. However, given past experience (notably with Balkan nephropathy), they felt an elusive toxin should still be entertained as a possibility. Further research efforts are urgently needed to confirm Dr Johnson's hypothesis and/or pinpoint the actual cause of this entity.

Interested individuals can track and join in the conversation by following @NephJC or #NephJC, or visit the webpage at NephJC.com.

On 2014 Aug 03, Swapnil Hiremath commented:

This review article was discussed on July 8th 2014 in the open online nephrology journal club, #NephJC, on twitter. Introductory comments are available at the PBFluids blog and at the NephJC website. It was a fascinating discussion, with participation from nephrologists around the world including the center of the epidemic in Central and South America. A transcript and a curated (i.e. Storified) version of the tweetchat are available from the NephJC website. The highlights of the tweetchat were:

• Mesoamerican nephropathy (or CKD of unknown etiology, CKDu) is increasingly recognized as an epidemic in Central American countries.
• Dr Johnson and colleagues present a very intriguing and novel hypothesis, based on repeated episodes of dehydration driving kidney damage, mediated by increased production of sorbitol, its conversion to fructose and downstream effects of fructose.
• The tweetchat participants found the hypothesis very interesting and physiologically fascinating. However, given past experience (notably with Balkan nephropathy), they felt an elusive toxin should still be entertained as a possibility. Further research efforts are urgently needed to confirm Dr Johnson's hypothesis and/or pinpoint the actual cause of this entity.

Interested individuals can track and join in the conversation by following @NephJC or #NephJC, or visit the webpage at NephJC.com.