A number of remarkable recent breakthroughs have made the study of nitric oxide one of the most exciting fields in physiology and pathophysiology. This authoritative edited volume reviews the progress to date and opens perspectives to novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The contributors are leading authorites, in most cases the investigators who have pioneered the ideas explored in the book.
The kidney is innervated with efferent sympathetic nerve fibers reaching the renal vasculature, the tubules, the juxtaglomerular granular cells, and the renal pelvic wall. The renal sensory nerves are mainly found in the renal pelvic wall. Increases in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity reduce renal blood flow and urinary sodium excretion by activation of α1-adrenoceptors and increase renin secretion rate by activation of β1-adrenoceptors. In response to normal physiological stimulation, changes in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity contribute importantly to homeostatic regulation of sodium and water balance. The renal mechanosensory nerves are activated by stretch of the renal pelvic tissue produced by increases in renal pelvic tissue of a magnitude that may occur during increased urine flow rate. Activation of the sensory nerves elicits an inhibitory renorenal reflex response consisting of decreases in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity leading to natriuresis. Increasing efferent sympathetic nerve activity increases afferent renal nerve activity which, in turn, decreases efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity by activation of the renorenal reflexes. Thus, activation of the afferent renal nerves buffers changes in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity in the overall goal of maintaining sodium balance. In pathological conditions of sodium retention, impairment of the inhibitory renorenal reflexes contributes to an inappropriately increased efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity in the presence of sodium retention. In states of renal disease or injury, there is a shift from inhibitory to excitatory reflexes originating in the kidney. Studies in essential hypertensive patients have shown that renal denervation results in long-term reduction in arterial pressure, suggesting an important role for the efferent and afferent renal nerves in hypertension. Table of Contents: Part I: Efferent Renal Sympathetic Nerves / Introduction / Neuroanatomy / Neural Control of Renal Hemodynamics / Neural Control of Renal Tubular Function / Neural Control of Renin Secretion Rate / Part II: Afferent Renal Sensory Nerves / Introduction / Neuroanatomy / Renorenal Reflexes / Mechanisms Involved in the Activation of Afferent Renal Sensory Nerves / Part III: Pathophysiological States / Efferent Renal Sympathetic Nerves / Afferent Renal Sensory Nerves / Conclusions / References
Literally thousands of papers have been published on nitric oxide over the past ten years. But there is no single monograph available that has previously attempted to summarize the important features of the roles of nitric oxide in inflammation. The voluminous literature regarding the incredible range of chemical and biological effects of nitric oxide and reactive nitrogen oxide species, RNOS, may present a tangle of confusing information to the researcher. This volume brings together experts from nitric oxide and inflammation research and presents a concise up-to-date overview as well as future aspects of this rapidly growing field.
Nitroglycerin and other organic nitrates have been used for over a century in the treatment of angina pectoris. Millions of patients, throughout the world, have placed nitroglycerin tablets under the tongue and have experienced rapid and dramatic relief from the chest pain that frequently occurs as a manifestation of disease of the coronary arteries. The empirical observation of the safe use of nitrates for tile alleviation of the symptoms of angina have led to their widespread medical acceptance. The use of organic nitrates preceded any knowledge of their mechanism of action or their ultimate metabolic fate. Thus, more simply stated, although sub lingual nitrates helped the patients, little was known concerning what these drugs do to the body or what the body does to the drugs. A substantial number of investigators have focused on these questions especially during the last two decades. We now have considerably more insight into the pathways of degradation of organic nitrates and the relationship of the metabolic processes to the biological action of these agents. Similarly, considerable effort has been expended in understanding the mechanism of action of these agents directly on vascular smooth muscle and on cardiac work and performance. Finally, there is a more substantive understanding of the physiology of the coronary circulation as well as the" pathophysiologic manifestations of myocardial disease.
The treatment of hypertension has become the most important intervention in the management of all forms of chronic kidney disease. Chronic Kidney Disease and Hypertension is a current, concise, and practical guide to the identification, treatment and management of hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease. In depth chapters discuss many relevant clinical questions and the future of treatment through medications and or novel new devices. Written by expert authors, Chronic Kidney Disease and Hypertension provides an up-to-date perspective on management and treatment and how it may re-shape practice approaches tomorrow.
The leading Textbook on the subject. A completely rewritten and up-to-date fifth edition, based upon the highly respected fourth edition, edited by C. Jacobs, C.M. Kjellstrand, K.M. Koch and J.F. Winchester. This new edition is truly global in scope and features the contributions of the top experts from around the world.
"Provides the latest advances in the explosive growth of nitric oxide (NO) study-covering the behavior of this highly reactive molecule in a wide variety of physiologicial processes, including respiration, blood pressure, neurotransmission, nospecific host defense, and wound healing."
This is a book about renal cysts and cystic kidneys. Its contributors have created a resource of current information in a field that once aroused only curiosity, but that now stands at the leading edge of molecular nephrology. Its authorship includes 'oldtimers', who bring the wisdom of experience, and 'newcomers', whose presence attests to the contributions made by the investigative and technological advances of the past decade. Its text is organized to carry the reader from renal cyst to cystic renal disease. Each of its chapters defines or explores a challenge or an advance. Cells that line renal cysts are diverse in structure, type, and perhaps function. The cysts themselves lie within an interstitium that is not normal and may influence cyst development and growth. Experimental analogs of human disease offer increasing opportunities to basic researchers to examine, in sequence and under controlled circumstances, those events that favor nephron dilation, cyst growth and ultimate renal failure.
Nephrology is one of the fastest growing specialties in medicine. Nevertheless, kidney disease is one of the most serious unmet health needs in many countries. To provide healthcare access with the desirable equity worldwide, the nephrology community needs to discuss this public health issue and take part in decisions for elaboration of public health policies with more justice and equity. This book brings together key current public health problems that affect kidney function and illuminates them in contributions by an international group of nephrologists and general practitioners. The chapters review current knowledge and provide guidelines to manage these conditions and decrease the disease burden. At the end, developments in the digital era and their application to kidney disease treatment are synthesized, and a broader outlook on the future of nephrology is given. Ultimately, the publication aims to gather nephrology and public health expertise from researchers from all over the world, providing a broad vision of issues that must be discussed and overcome to guarantee a better treatment for patients with kidney diseases in the world today.
