A pinch of salt - A podcast by ERA

In this episode of A pinch of salt we’ll be talking to Paul Cockwell about patient-reported outcomes in clinical practice. You may or may not be aware of these issues and their importance but one might argue, and we certainly would, that every doctor should be mindful of what their patients consider to be an important outcome and whether they are achieving it or not. Paul is a champion of this field, and he provided some very useful pointers on how a beginner in this field might get to know it and start working on these issues in his or her clinical practice. The SONG initiative will be mentioned, as well as a useful systematic review on symptom burden and health-related quality of life in CKD, and a shout out to a recent important paper published in CKJ (doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfaf112). Learn about the art of trying to meet the patients’ needs in this knowledge-packed episode. 

In this episode of A pinch of salt, we welcome Pierre Delanaye for a forward-looking discussion on how we should assess kidney function in 2026. Together, we explore the strengths and limits of today’s GFR equations (MDRD, CKD-EPI, cystatin C-based approaches), the promise of emerging biomarkers and AI-driven tools, and the crucial question of fairness and accuracy across diverse populations.

Join A pinch of salt, as we sit down with David Jayne to trace the rapid transformation of ANCA-associated vasculitis care. From the historic cyclophosphamide–glucocorticoid backbone to biologics like rituximab and newer targeted strategies such as complement inhibition (including avacopan), this episode unpacks how clinicians can balance efficacy, safety, and quality of life—while looking ahead to what may define the next decade of treatment. 

In this episode of A pinch of salt, Allon N. Friedman will talk about possibly the hottest topic in medicine at this moment – the treatment of obesity, with a particular focus on treating the CKD population. Obesity is finally being recognized as a disease and not merely an unfortunate, somewhat shameful consequence of personalities with weak minds and lack of willpower. But how do we treat it? Does changing lifestyle have any impact, should everybody start taking weight lowering medications, what about surgery? As always, we’ll be trying to provide you with some helpful clinical information that might help you and your patients in regular clinical practice.

In this episode of A pinch of salt, Shuchi Anand will talk about chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, the mysterious kidney disease that is devastating some agricultural communities in hot environments. Dr Anand will talk about what might be causing this disease, does a kidney biopsy help, is it mandatory, and how to treat these patients both on the individual level and on the population level to tackle this disease locally and globally. Learn more about this true medical mystery, with stories from the literature and stories from the field. 

In this episode of A pinch of salt, Beatriz Sanchez Alamo will talk about tubulointerstitial nephritis (TIN), the Cinderella of nephrology, a beautiful and interesting topic that is not easily noticeable in congresses and webinars. Some recent data looking at long-term prognosis has shown that patients with TIN might have a long-term prognosis that is comparable to lupus nephritis and ANCA vasculitis. Are we ignoring TIN and if so, what should we be doing differently? In this episode we’ll be talking about diagnosis, new tests that might identify precisely the drug that is causing TIN, what the treatment and follow-up should be and much more. Dedicated to everybody and anybody who is not entirely glomerulocentric. 

In this episode we will be talking to Giovanni Tripepi, an expert in biostatistics. Medicine is not just an art but also a science grounded in biostatistics, which is why it is crucial to understand it in order to conduct and interpret research properly. In this episode you will hear about the most common mistakes made by medical researchers when planning a project, the most common mistakes when interpreting data, why a p-value below 0.05 is not always significant and a whole lot more. By the end you will understand statistics better and it won’t be painful at all. 

In this episode we will be talking to Luca Quartuccio, a rheumatologist and a renowned expert in cryoglobulinemia. You will hear about how we diagnose cryoglobulinemic vasculitis, whether we can have cryoglobulinemia without vasculitis, the types of cryoglobulinemia and their clinical significance, how to tackle secondary cryoglobulinemia with hepatitis C or B, first line therapy, the role of plasma exchange and maintenance therapy and much, much more. Dedicated to everybody who takes care of these difficult patients.