Jakub Ruszkowski

Jakub Ruszkowski

@jruszkowski.bsky.social

MD, PhD. Internal medicine specialist, nephrology trainee. Passionate about pathophysiology, immunology, statistics, and evidence synthesis.

390 Followers 323 Following 93 Posts Joined Nov 2024
1 month ago

I forgot to add: Fx is the ratio of the change in secretory clearance to the change in GFR. When Fx = 1, tubular secretion declines proportionally to GFR (INH holds); when Fx < 1, secretion declines more than GFR would predict (INH fails).

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1 month ago
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Predicting OCT2/MATEs‐Mediated Drug Interactions in Healthy Volunteers and Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights from Extended Clearance Concept, Endogenous Biomarkers, and In Vitro Inhibition Studies (Perspectives from the International Transporter Consortium) Organic cation transporter (OCT) 2 and multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) transporters play significant roles in the renal secretion of organic cations and drug–drug interactions (DDIs). Recent in ...

💊 Authors' recommendation for CKD 4-5:

For anionic drugs (OAT1/3) with high secretory contribution → consider an additional 50% reduction in secretory clearance beyond GFR-based adjustment

📄 doi.org/10.1002/cpt....
📄 doi.org/10.1002/cpt....

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1 month ago
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Clinical Implications of Altered Drug Transporter Abundance/Function and PBPK Modeling in Specific Populations: An ITC Perspective The role of membrane transporters on pharmacokinetics (PKs), drug–drug interactions (DDIs), pharmacodynamics (PDs), and toxicity of drugs has been broadly recognized. However, our knowledge of modula....

📊 OAT1/3 substrates (anionic drugs) in severe CKD:
→ Fx = 0.50 ± 0.29, CV = 58%
→ Penicillins, methotrexate, tenofovir

OCT2/MATE substrates (cationic drugs):
→ Fx ≈ 1.0 (range 0.77–1.13)
→ Metformin, amantadine, trimethoprim

Anions are unpredictable, cations follow GFR 🎯
📄 doi.org/10.1002/cpt....

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1 month ago
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The Intact Nephron Hypothesis has guided renal drug dosing for 60+ years. The idea: as GFR drops, tubular secretion drops proportionally.
Sounds elegant, right?
But new data shows it's WRONG for many drugs in severe CKD.
Here's what you need to know 🧵👇

#Nephrology #NephSky #Pharmacokinetics

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2 months ago

🧵11/11
Source: Joshi A, et al. Sjögren's syndrome and hepatitis C virus infection presenting as hypokalemic quadriparesis: A case report. Journal of International Medical Research 2025;53(12):1-8. DOI: 10.1177/03000605251404767

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2 months ago

🧵10/11
KEY LESSONS 🎯:
1. Consider autoimmune diseases (especially Sjögren's) in refractory hypokalemia + distal RTA
2. Sicca symptoms may be subtle - ask specifically about them!
3. HCV can mimic Sjögren's - check viral load
4. Early diagnosis + electrolyte correction = rapid recovery

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2 months ago

🧵9/11
TREATMENT:
✅ Sodium bicarbonate 1g BID
✅ Spironolacton 50mg daily
✅ Potassium chloride (oral)

OUTCOME:
Day 5: Patient could WALK! 🎉
At discharge: Normal muscle strength in all limbs, normalized lab parameters. Complete recovery achieved!

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2 months ago

🧵8/11
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY of distal RTA in Sjögren's:

Autoimmune attack → absence of H+-ATPase pumps in intercalated cells → can't excrete H+ into urine → H+ retention → metabolic acidosis with normal anion gap.

Increased urinary K+ loss → severe hypokalemia → quadriparesis 💪

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2 months ago

🧵7/11
But wait - there's a twist! 😮
HCV antibody: POSITIVE
This created a diagnostic dilemma because chronic HCV infection can mimic primary Sjögren's syndrome with similar clinical & lab features.
Solution: HCV RNA PCR was ordered. It was NEGATIVE ✅ This excluded active viral replication.

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2 months ago
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a cat is being treated with a bottle of eye drops ALT: a cat is being treated with a bottle of eye drops

🧵6/11
What causes distal RTA in a young woman? 🔍
Autoimmune workup showed:
ANA 97.2 AU/mL ↑
SSA/Ro-52 antibodies +++
Directed history: She'd had DRY EYES for months 👁️
Schirmer's test: positive (severe bilateral dry eyes)
DIAGNOSIS: Primary Sjögren's syndrome with distal RTA!

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2 months ago

🧵5/11
Muscle enzymes were dramatically elevated:
CK 36,614 IU/L ↑↑↑
AST 348 U/L ↑↑
LDH 404 U/L ↑↑
Initially suggested inflammatory myopathy, BUT:
❌ Acute onset (not gradual)
❌ No rash
❌ Enzymes normalized WITHOUT immunosuppression
Diagnosis: hypokalemia-induced rhabdomyolysis!

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2 months ago
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Normal anion gap metabolic acidosis + positive urine anion gap = RENAL TUBULAR ACIDOSIS
But which type? Proximal vs distal?🤔
Key findings that pointed to DISTAL RTA:
✅ Severe hypo-K
✅ Urine pH >5.5 despite systemic acidosis
✅ NO Fanconi syndrome features

www.kireportscommunity.org/post/renal-t...

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2 months ago

🧵3/11
Despite adequate K+ and fluid replacement AND no more vomiting after antiemetics, potassium levels REMAINED critically low! 🚨
This refractory hypokalemia suggested something more than just GI losses.
ABG was ordered and revealed:
pH 7.296 ↓
HCO3- 14.4 mmol/L ↓
Normal anion gap: 11

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2 months ago

🧵2/11
Initial labs showed SEVERE electrolyte disturbances:
K+ 1.7 mmol/L ↓↓ (critical!)
Na+ 130.1 mmol/L ↓
Mg2+ 1.05 mg/dL ↓
Working diagnosis: quadriparesis secondary to hypokalemia.
Treatment started: IV fluids, potassium supplementation, antiemetics.
But there was a problem...

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2 months ago

CASE REPORT: Hypokalemic Quadriparesis for Nephrologist

A woman in her mid-20s presented to the ER with sudden-onset weakness in all limbs, unable to stand from sitting position. She'd had lower abdominal pain, vomiting & leg muscle pain for one week.
What was causing this dramatic presentation? 🧵

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5 months ago
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Summary #GlomCon

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4 months ago
American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2025 
Original Article | Nov. 7, 2025 | NEJM.org 
Fish-Oil Supplementation and Cardiovascular Events in Patients Receiving Hemodialysis 

Fig. 1A. A Serious Cardiovascular Events 

The NEJM identity sits at the bottom.

In the PISCES trial involving participants receiving hemodialysis, fish oil (n−3 fatty acids) was compared with corn-oil placebo. The rate of serious cardiovascular events was lower with daily fish-oil supplementation. Full trial results: nej.md/49zWuqo

@asnkidney.bsky.social | #KidneyWk

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4 months ago
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Empagliflozin, the kidney, and what we still don’t understand — NephJC NephJC short on an empagliflozin meta-analysis

The latest empadata dump: @nephroseeker.medsky.social writes up a #NephJC short on the meta analysis

www.nephjc.com/news/2025/10...

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6 months ago

Seeking collaboration with #MedLibs for scoping review on predictive models in peritoneal dialysis!
Protocol nearly finalized. Looking for expertise in search strategy peer-review (PRESS checklist) + optional database searches/deduplication.
DM if interested in co-authorship for this project!

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7 months ago
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Lots of different ways to do observational causal inference—IV, proximal inference, etc. What if you could compare those strategies more directly?

New preprint w/ @melodyyhuang.bsky.social tries to do just that. Here's one cool figure—we're able to visualize bias of 3 estimators on the same plot

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6 months ago

"It remains important to consider bromism in patients presenting with new neurologic, psychiatric, and/or dermatologic symptoms, as well as hyperchloremia
with a negative anion gap." (...) Elevated levels of halides such as bromide falsely increase chloride reading.

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7 months ago
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Urine sodium (Urine Na) levels post-saline infusion in differentiating non-edematous hyponatremia ca. 2025
#Nephpearls #NephSky

👉🏼 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40775013/

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7 months ago
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modelbased: An R package to make the most out of your statistical models through marginal means, marginal effects, and model predictions Makowski et al., (2025). modelbased: An R package to make the most out of your statistical models through marginal means, marginal effects, and model predictions. Journal of Open Source Software, 10(1...

#statstab #390 modelbased: An R package to make the most out of
your statistical models through marginal means,
marginal effects, and model predictions

Thoughts: Great package for getting predicted probabilities for your models.

#rstats #r #easystats

doi.org/10.21105/jos...

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7 months ago
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The Double-Icodextrin Dose Randomized Controlled Trial of a Double #Icodextrin Dose for #Older Patients on Incremental Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis #CAPD

#VisualAbstract by @md_abdulqader83

www.kireports.org/ar...

@lobbedezt.bsky.social @clemencebechade.bsky.social

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8 months ago
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The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?

That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience

A 🧵 1/n

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8 months ago
Using robcov() to adjust for donor-level clustering in kidney transplant outcomes? I am doing a study to assess the association between transplant factors and kidney transplant outcomes (specifically survival of the transplanted kidney) using US registry data. I’m using `cph()`. A key issue is that when looking at outcomes, most recipients are not truly independent as they are clustered by donor. Specifically, in our analysis we have 57,153 donors where both kidneys were transplanted (into different recipients) and 39,389 donors where only one kidney was transplanted into a single recipient. So our analysis on recipient outcomes has n=153,695 recipients, and 96,542 donor clusters (each of which has either 1 or 2 recipients). The focus of the research study is to assess if how the kidney was preserved impacts on kidney graft survival, and I adjust for several donor and recipient factors in the model. This is how I am currently using robcov to get cluster robust SE (from which I am calculating 95% confidence intervals) fit <- cph(Surv(time, event) ~ var1 + var2 + var3, data, x = TRUE, y = TRUE) fit_robust <- robcov(fit, cluster = data$donor_id) My understanding is that this uses the Huber-White method for updating the variance-covariance, which will increase the variance due to the clustering. I’ve seen other papers in the field use frailty terms (or other mixed effect models for non-survival outcomes). However, I think that robust SE using `robcov()` is probably a better solution here. Is this a valid approach, given the large number of clusters, but small cluster size (either 2 or 1 per cluster)? Would the same approach be valid for logistic regression and linear (fit with `ols()`)?
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8 months ago

[Skim] KI-Tools für die wissenschaftliche Literaturrecherche: Potenziale, Problematiken, Didaktik und Zukunftsperspektiven www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi... - or AI Tools for Academic Literature Search: Possibilities, Problems, Didactics, and Future Prospects insanely comprehensive! (1)

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8 months ago
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Next level of cherry-picking. Lack of significance in Student's t-test? Report then F-test and interpret it as a t-test 🫣🫣🫣

(F-test compares variances, not means🤡)

Source: doi.org/10.3390/cell...

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8 months ago
Proportional Odds Model Power Calculations for Ordinal and Mixed Ordinal/Continuous Outcomes – Statistical Thinking This article has detailed examples with complete R code for computing frequentist power for ordinal, continuous, and mixed ordinal/continuous outcomes in two-group comparisons with equal sample sizes....

#Statistics thought of the day: Need power calculations for a 2-group comparison on an ordinal or continuous response variable Y with/without clumping at a specific value (e.g., 0) of Y, with a possibly bimodal, heavy tailed, or skewed distribution? See www.fharrell.com/post/pop/ #RStats #StatsSky

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8 months ago
Validate User

CLINICAL IMPACT:
Current CKD staging doesn't account for proximal tubular damage - a key risk factor for hypomagnesemia in CKD patients. 💊 Mg supplementation showed limited efficacy in proteinuric patients

Read more: doi.org/10.1093/ndt/...
🧵3/3

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