Author Archives: Tony Breu

For this episode of the podcast, Avi and the team discussed “normal” saline and why it isn’t so normal. This was based largely on the tweetorial he posted on New Year’s Eve, 2019. A Little History Saline was originally used in the 1830s by a Scottish physician named Thomas Latta to treat cholera patients duringContinue reading “Episode 7: Is saline nephrotoxic?”

Many of you know that azithromycin is often used as part of the treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). And this is done even when there is no evidence of a bacterial infection. That means there are two possible explanations: (1) it’s just assumed that there is a bacterial infection there,Continue reading “Episode 6: Why is azithromycin anti-inflammatory?”

On this episode of the podcast, the group answered a question that is often addressed with a wave of the hand: How do diuretics lead to metabolic alkalosis? Along the way, we dissected what is meant by contraction alkalosis, introduced a protein that none of us had heard of until exploring this question, and foundContinue reading “Episode 5: How do diuretics lead to metabolic alkalosis?”

For this episode of the podcast, we discuss something Hannah became interested in after seeing a question about it on Twitter. Here’s a link to Hannah’s explanation on the topic and the original case tweet. GFR basics To understand why TMP/SMX might lead to an increase in creatinine without a fall in renal function, weContinue reading “Episode 3: Why does TMP/SMX cause an isolated rise in creatinine?”