The Urinary Sediment, 3rd edition, 2010, Giovanni B. Fogazzi, Elsevier, Milano; pp. 254

…When the patient dies the kidneys go to the pathologist , but while he lives the urine is ours. It can provide us day by day, month by month, and year by year with a serial story of the major events within the kidney. The examination of the urine is the most essential part of the physical examination of the patient… (Thomas Addis, 1948) This quote from Prof. Addis starts the magnificent historical introductory chapter of this third edition of the book 'The Urinary Sediment: An Integrated View' of Prof. Fogazzi. This book made me wonder how Dr Addis would be disappointed when he, being on call in one of our mega-hospitals, would find out that nowadays it is sometimes easier and often quicker to obtain a renal ultrasound or even a CT scan than to know the result of the urinary sediment , at least if the consultant is not doing this examination him/herself. Even more pertinent than the eventual disappointment of Dr Addis was my personal experience only a couple of weeks ago at an editorial meeting of a major textbook of nephrology where the question was seriously raised on whether in the textbook a separate chapter on urinary sediment should be included. One of the arguments against was that urinary sediments are nowadays very rarely done and that most clinical laboratories are now using automatic systems for this analysis, and that clinicians, including nephrol-ogists, are only very rarely looking at the urine anymore. It is refreshing that in this book, not only the advantages but also the limitations of these automated systems for urinary sediment analysis are discussed in a separate chapter. It is a pity that despite this high-quality book with its numerous beautiful illustrations and photographs, not many clinicians are still fascinated by this clinical art. It is therefore admirable that Dr Fogazzi and his co-authors still had the courage to publish this third edition, 10 years after the previous edition. The book contains, besides the historical chapter and a more technical appendix, eight chapters covering virtually all aspects of the examination of the urinary sediment. The introductory chapters describe the formed elements of the sediment, the impact of drugs and the sediment in the normal subject. For the clinician, the most relevant chapters are those where the urinary sediment is described in the most frequent individual diseases of the kidney and the urinary tract. …