The first edition of the Oxford Textbook of Clinical Nephrology established itself as the leading clinical reference text for practicing nephrologists worldwide. The second edition comes five years later, during which time there have been significant advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis of renal disease and in therapy. Placing existing treatment on a firm scientific basis or stopping ineffective or dangerous treatment is as important as introducing proven new therapies, and all the contributors have taken this fully into account.During the development of the second edition all the first edition chapters were critically reviewed by practicing nephrologists and their suggestions have been incorporated to make the text even more practically useful and logically arranged. Expert topic editors for pediatrics, pathology, physiology and pharmacology have checked all relevant sections from their own perspective.This edition is the only major textbook of nephrology to be printed in full colour throughout. Reproduction of the histological and clinical illustrations in their natural colours reveals their true significance, and there are numerous new colour illustrations.There are new chapters on: Imaging tactics - a rationale; Structural basis of glomerular function; Symptomless patient with abnormal urine; Immunotactoid (fibrillary) nephritis; Mechanisms of interstitial disease;and Host factors in the pathogenesis of urinary tract infection. The sections on acute and chronic renal failure have been reorganized with new chapters on the Epidemiology of acute renal failure, Dialysis and haemoperfusion treatment in acute poisoning, and Genesis of the uraemic syndrome. In addition the chapter on Gastrointestinal effects in chronic renal failure includes a new discussion of the various forms of hepatitis. A new section on Acute renal failure in special settings includes new chapters on pregnancy, tropical illness, and the elderly. In the inherited diseases section there is a new chapter on Inherited disorders of purine metabolism, and in the structural diseases section a new chapter on Medullary sponge kidney. The section on malignant disease has new chapters on Tumours of the bladder, and Tumours of the prostate. The result is an outstanding up- to-date, international clinical text which no clinical nephrologist can afford to be without.