The Atlas of Diseases of the Kidney series offers unique educational images including coloured photographs, schematics, tables and algorithms. The nine section editors have selected contributing authors who are not only experts in their field but are also superb educators. The resulting five volumes contain 67 chapters with more than 2500 images and provide the best teaching materials available in the field. In Volume I, disorders of water and sodium balance; potassium, magnesium, phosphate, and calcium metabolism; and acid-based balance are eloquently covered in Tomas Berl's section. Joseph Bonventre edited the section on acute renal failure including ischemic and nephrotoxic insults. His contributors assembled lucid and state-of-the-art educational materials related to the cellular and molecular mechanisms of renal injury and repair. Diagnostic evaluation, renal histology, nutrition and support therapies including intermittent hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and continuous renal replacement therapies are illustrated.