Carmelo Giordano (1930-2016): a giant in Nephrology.

Carmelo Giordano (Carmine, Louis, Joseph Giordano) was born in Naples on August 23, 1930 in the house of Rafael and Anna Tirone He received the MD cum laude in 1954. He was Fellow and assistant to Professor Flaviano Magrassi and studied nephrology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, University of Harvard in Boston, under the guidance of John P. Merrill (1958-1960). He was nominated Professor of Nephrology at the University Federico II, Naples in 1975 and Professor of Medicine at the Second University of Naples (1986-2002). The National Institutes of Health of the United States in Bethesda financed his research for more than 20 years. He started low protein alimentation (Giordano-Giovannetti diet according to Geoffrey M. Berlyne) with or without addition of amino acids and ketoacids and devised formula diets for CKD infants and children. He demonstrated that 85% of CKD patients receiving a 25 g protein diet were in positive nitrogen balance. Later he introduced the concept of energy load from dialysate in CAPD and the assessment of amino acid losses during hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. He also researched the minimum protein requirement under CAPD regimens. He synthesized, with Professor Renato Esposito, oxystarch and oycellulose and introduced the use of carbon at low temperature and its regeneration at 90°C. He introduced wearable and portable artificial kidneys. He died in Naples on May 12, 2016.