"Practical and imaginative" best describe this compact book. Its terminology and spelling, though British, are easily understood. The authors waste few words. Supplementing their text with simple diagrams, tables, line drawings, and photomicrographs, they correlate clinical and laboratory findings with various renal disease.
In discussing renal structure and function, Douglas and Kerr include light and electron microscopic observations, mechanisms of salt, water, and acid excretion, and theories of countercurrent flow and osmotic diuresis through the intact nephron. Throughout the book, in critical appraisals of investigative procedures, they give indications for various laboratory tests, radiographic and radioisotope surveys, and renal biopsy.
After defining morphologic and physiologic changes characterizing the nephrotic syndrome, the authors briefly describe use of high protein diets, intravenous human albumen, and immunosuppressive drugs. They carefully set forth the indications for steroid therapy and its limitations and, using an excellent diagram to depict probable sites of action along the