Kidney transplant recipients do not contract COVID-19 from accepting a kidney donation from a COVID-19-positive deceased donor, according to data published in the Journal of Urology.
In a retrospective review, the Cleveland Clinic transplant team examined data for 55 patients who received a kidney donation from 34 deceased donors with COVID-19 between February 2021 and October 2021. All donors tested positive for COVID-19 within a median of 4 days of organ donation. Read more in Healio.
Researchers developed a patient preference survey intended to show maximal acceptable risk for using a kidney replacement device and willingness-to-wait for devices with lower risk.
“Catalyzed by U.S. regulatory reform and the Kidney Innovation Accelerator (KidneyX) prize competition, there has been unprecedented [kidney replacement therapy] KRT research and development in recent years. Read the full story in Healio.
A recent study of patients with kidney failure receiving outpatient hemodialysis1,2 found similar effectiveness between nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatments for depression.
Depression is common among patients with kidney failure and is associated with poor outcomes including higher risk of kidney function decline, hospitalization, and death. In the United States, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires dialysis facilities to screen patients for depression. Positive screenings require kidney care teams to create a follow-up plan for further assessment and treatment.3
Read the full article from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
On May 6, 2014, all Kevin Schnurr had to do was remember his name and date of birth.
So—on May 6, 2014—Kevin awoke from surgery, and doctors and nurses asked him his name and date of birth.
Kevin successfully replied, “My name is Kevin Schnurr … and I was born on March 31, 1986.”
Read the full story on CareDx.com.
There are approximately 100,000 people in the United States waiting for a kidney, and many more living kidney donors are needed to give kidney patients a chance to receive a life-saving kidney transplant. If you are considering becoming a living kidney donor, you may be wondering whether kidney donation is safe, or if there are any risks associated with kidney donation surgery.
A new study by the Mayo Clinic confirms that the risk of major complications for living kidney donors is minimal. Of the 3,002 living kidney donors who underwent laparoscopic kidney donor surgery at the Mayo Clinic transplant center from 2000 to 2019, 12.4% had minor post-surgical complications. Just 2.5% of patients in the study experienced major complications, and all made a complete recovery. The study tracked complications that occurred up to 120 days after surgery. Read more from the National Kidney Registry.
They often shared a church pew on Sundays in their Spartanburg, South Carolina, church, but now Karen Randall and Kathy Hodge share much more and have for 20 years. Called the “Liver Sisters” by Hodge’s husband, the two have an incredible bond that has been celebrated throughout the years and every April during National Donate Life Month.
Healthy all her life, Randall was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, primary biliary cholangitis, during a routine check-up in 1995 when she was 41-years-old. The disorder inflames the bile ducts between the liver and the small intestines, which eventually collapse and cause liver damage. The progressive disease would mean that Randall would need a liver transplant within five years. Read the full article from Emory News Center.
In the third installment of a three-part video series, Heather Stefanski, MD, PhD, discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match.
“One of the common questions we received … is what to do when a donor tests positive for COVID-19,” Stefanski — vice president of medical services for National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match — told Healio. Read more in Healio.
Liver transplants from drug overdose donors rose significantly in the pandemic’s first year, helping keep the number of liver transplants in the U.S. stable despite COVID-19 disruptions, according to a study to be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2022.
Using the U.S. organ donation registry, operated by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the research team examined characteristics of donors for all solid organ transplants, including livers, during two 14-month periods, both before the pandemic began and afterwards. They identified those transplants from drug overdose donors to determine the extent of changes during the pandemic. Read more from News Medical Life Sciences.
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CareDx, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA) – The Transplant Company™ focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of clinically differentiated, high-value healthcare solutions for transplant patients and caregivers – today announced that it has received CE marking for its AlloSeq HCT chimerism testing kit and AlloSeq HCT interpretation software for use in patients who have received hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).
“Transplantation is global and CareDx is proud to expand its leadership in Europe with CE marked AlloSeq HCT to help improve care for hematopoietic cell transplant patients,” said Reg Seeto, CEO and President of CareDx. “This new CE mark demonstrates our commitment to bringing high quality products to patients in Europe through our AlloSeq franchise, which includes a comprehensive suite of pre- and post-transplant solutions.”
Read the full press release on CareDx.com.
— Severity of kidney disease ups risk of ICU time, in-hospital mortality, and more
SAN DIEGO — Certain factors were highly predictive of severe COVID illness in hospitalized patients who had type 2 diabetes (T2D) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), a researcher reported.
In a single-center study of patients with T2D and CKD hospitalized with COVID-19 infection, having hyperglycemia upon admission was tied with more than a 10 times higher risk of severe COVID illness (OR 10.49, 95% CI 3.09-35.60), according to Ella Burguera-Couce, an MD candidate at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Read the complete article in MedPage Today.