Antonia Dal Canton – författare

The successful series of International Meetings on "Current Therapy in Nephrology" (now known around the world as "Sorrento Meeting") has continued this year with the third meeting of the series, updating on new therapeutic strategies in Nephrology. This time the meeting was held at the Cocumella Hotel of Sorrento, Italy, on May 27-30, 1990, in a wonderful atmosphere, with the participation of outstanding scientists, such as Drs. H. Auchincloss (Boston, USA), E. Bartoli (Udine, Italy), V. Bonomini (Bologna, Italy), M. Broyer (Paris, France), V. Cambi (Parma, Italy), G. Camussi (Naples, Italy), J.M. Dubemard (Lyon, France), G. Haycock (London, U.K.), G. Jacobs (Paris, France), C. Kjellstrand (Minneapolis, USA), R. Maiorca (Brescia, Italy), G. Maschio (Verona, Italy). As many as five hundred nephrologists from all over the world (European Countries, Israel, U.S.A., Taiwan, Corea, Japan) attended the meeting, actively participating in the discussion of a great number of good papers and posters.Important lectures by invited speakers have dealed with mediators of inflammation, cellular immunity in glomerular pathology, immunosuppressive therapy in autoimmune nephropathies, treatment of hypertension in chronic renal failure, dialysis compatibility, xenogenic transplantation. Very interesting controversies have been included in the programme: "Extracorporeal or peritoneal dialysis for uremic children?" (M. Broyer against G. Haycock) and "Extracorporeal or peritoneal dialysis for diabetic uremic patients?" (c. Kjellstrand against C. Jacobs). Their presentation has been quite successful with a great participation in the discussion by Congress members.

The need for adequate means by which to improve urine output is very old. Even in the "Scuola Salernitana", the oldest medieval medical school in Western Europe, about 1000 years ago it was taught how to improve urine output. The list of known "diuretica" included herbs, plants, roots, vegetables, in particular asparagus, fennel and carrot. The first diuretic drugs, however, were mercurial compounds. Thus, calomel, mercurous chloride, was initially used as a diuretic in the sixteenth century by Paracelsus, being one of the ingredients of the so-called "Guy's Hospital pill". But calomel had a cathartic effect so that it was replaced by organic mercurial compounds. These diuretics were clearly toxic. After the discovery of the car­ bonic anhydrase, in the early 1930s, and the introduction of sulfanilamide as a chemotherapeutic agent, it was observed that this drug was inhibiting carbonic anhydrase in vitro and urinary acidification in vivo thereby causing metabolic acidosis; urine output, however, appeared to increase. Subsequent studies led to the synthesis of more potent analogs, in particular acetazolamide. Studies on car­ bonic anhydrase inhibitors led to the synthesis of benzothiadiazides which disclosed much less inactivating action on carbonic anhydrase and much more diuretic effect through an inhibition of tubular transport of sodium and chloride. Chlorothiazide was the first member of this class of diuretics. Thiazides are still used in clinical practice.

This book includes the proceedings of the 2nd International Meeting on Cur- rent Therapy in Nephrology held in Sorrento, Italy, May 22-25, 1988. The book provides a comprehensive update on new therapeutic strategies in the broad field of Nephrology. The reader will receive information on advances in treatment of glomerulonephritis, new dialysis techniques and progress in renal transplantation. In addition, sections deal with provocative experimental ap- proaches to treating renal disease. Topics include: cyclosporine in treatment of nephrotic syndrome, plasma ex- change in ARF, treatment of beta-2 microglobulin amyloidosis, nutritional of dialytic adequacy revisited after assessment in patients on RDT, standards development of biocompatible membranes, drug interaction with cyclosporine, renal transplantation in elderly recipients, and renal transplantation with elderly donors. A special effort was made to recruit contributors among the most important scientific authorities in their respective fields: we are grateful to Drs. Cameron, Lamm, Isemberg, Meyrier, Niaudet, Brynger, Lundgren, Fauchald, Cockburn, Gotch, Kopple, Cheung and Horl for having accepted our invitation.We are also indebted to all other authors who participated in the meeting and submitted their original papers for publication. I.

The need for adequate means by which to improve urine output is very old. Even in the "Scuola Salernitana", the oldest medieval medical school in Western Europe, about 1000 years ago it was taught how to improve urine output. The list of known "diuretica" included herbs, plants, roots, vegetables, in particular asparagus, fennel and carrot. The first diuretic drugs, however, were mercurial compounds. Thus, calomel, mercurous chloride, was initially used as a diuretic in the sixteenth century by Paracelsus, being one of the ingredients of the so-called "Guy's Hospital pill". But calomel had a cathartic effect so that it was replaced by organic mercurial compounds. These diuretics were clearly toxic. After the discovery of the car­ bonic anhydrase, in the early 1930s, and the introduction of sulfanilamide as a chemotherapeutic agent, it was observed that this drug was inhibiting carbonic anhydrase in vitro and urinary acidification in vivo thereby causing metabolic acidosis; urine output, however, appeared to increase. Subsequent studies led to the synthesis of more potent analogs, in particular acetazolamide. Studies on car­ bonic anhydrase inhibitors led to the synthesis of benzothiadiazides which disclosed much less inactivating action on carbonic anhydrase and much more diuretic effect through an inhibition of tubular transport of sodium and chloride. Chlorothiazide was the first member of this class of diuretics. Thiazides are still used in clinical practice.