“Magnification Phenomenon” in Chronic Renal Disease

THE functional adaptations that occur in the surviving nephrons as chronic renal disease advances are remarkable in their ultimate dimensions and lifesaving in their biologic effects. In an earlier seminar on these adaptations, we presented the hypothesis that there may be undesirable "trade-offs" that are responsible for certain symptoms and signs of chronic uremia.¹This discussion also concerns the adaptations in nephron function in uremia and also presents a new concept, which we have called the "magnification phenomenon." In contrast to the trade-off hypothesis, the magnification phenomenon deals more explicitly with the phenomenology of the adaptations in themselves.The major . . .