Book excerpt: This book is designed to enable clinicians faced with a patient who has a kidney problem, to develop an organised and structured approach that is based on either evidence or expert opinion, well substantiated by literature, and in sync with present knowledge and concepts. It should therefore be valuable to the reader, whether involved in physician education or in clinical practice, or whether a medical student, house officer or seasoned clinician. It can serve as a resource to the internist or primary care physician deciding upon when to refer a patient to the nephrologist. The health plan director desiring to set up a program to transition patients between CKD stages or to develop a disease management program should find this book highly useful. This book offers a journey through patient care that starts with the definition, classification, staging and measurement of kidney function, covering principles of diagnostic imaging as well as the clinical approach. This book acquaints the reader with approaches to the complications that challenge the management of CKD -- cardiovascular disease, anaemia, metabolic acidosis, hypoalbuminemia and CKD-MBD. It will assist clinicians considering treatment options and modality selection.