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Health Improves After Stem Cell Transplant, But Challenges Remain

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Patients surveyed said they felt empowered to play sports, travel, get a job

People with sickle cell disease (SCD) may see their physical, mental, and social health get better after a stem cell transplant, and this may help them pursue their personal life goals, a small study found.

Still, challenges remained as they “confronted a new and unfamiliar reality,” the researchers wrote in the study, “Physical, Mental, and Social Health of Adult Patients with Sickle Cell Disease after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Mixed-Methods Study,” which was published in Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
Read the complete article in Sickle Cell Disease News.

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Can a Nationwide Liver Paired Donation Program Work?

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For a patient who needs a liver, living donation offers an alternative to staying on a list of over 10,000 people waiting for a liver transplant. But what happens when your donor is not a match? To expand the number of living liver donations in the United States, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has launched the first national paired liver donation pilot program in the United States. Read more in Medscape.

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Social determinants of health tied to long-term employment after heart transplant

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A database analysis showed 22% of heart transplant recipients who survived to 1 year and received follow-up were employed full time at 1 year and nearly 33% were employed at 2 years after transplant.

In a retrospective analysis of more than 10,000 heart transplant recipients who survived to 1 year with follow-up, researchers also found that employment at the time of listing or transplantation was strongly associated with employment after surgery. Read the full story in Healio.

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Disparities in Kidney Transplant Access Can Be Reduced Through a Multilevel Quality Improvement Effort

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Study shows kidney transplant inequity among African Americans can be addressed by standardizing the evaluation process and expanding the use of telehealth, among other approaches

Key Takeaways

  • Addressing long-standing disparities: African Americans are less likely to be added to the kidney transplant waitlist than white patients and more likely to be on dialysis longer when added to the kidney transplant waitlist.
  • A multilevel quality improvement effort: A five-year retrospective study measured the impact of multiple quality improvement interventions, including increasing local opportunities to complete transplant workup and expanding access to telehealth, intended to reduce key barriers to kidney transplant access.
  • Reducing structural barriers: The interventions increased access to transplants without affecting outcomes, with the researchers noting that virtual visits likely had the most impact in reducing barriers to evaluation. Read the full story in Newswise.
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FDA: Evusheld no longer authorized to prevent COVID-19 in US ‘until further notice’

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Evusheld is no longer authorized for use to help prevent COVID-19 in the United States “until further notice,” due to a lack of protection against dominant variants, according to new guidance issued by the FDA.

In its updated guidance, the FDA limited the use of Evusheld (tixagevimab plus cilgavimab, AstraZeneca) to when the combined national frequency of variants that are not susceptible to the treatment is 90% or less. Read more in Healio.

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Confronting My Fear of a Lung Transplant Because of CF

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The thought of receiving a lung transplant can prompt a range of emotions

Fear often triggers one’s fight-or flight instincts. Depending on the circumstances, when it happens to me, I’ll either persevere through an unwanted situation or become paralyzed by fear. When I become frozen, I don’t want to do anything, and I let the fear caused by the situation just flush over me.

One of my biggest fears is something that’s pretty common for people with cystic fibrosis (CF): having a lung transplant and rehabbing afterward. Read the full story in Cystic Fibrosis News Today.

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Diabetes Drug for Cats Now Approved in Humans Too

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— Oral SGLT2 inhibitor bexagliflozin indicated for adults with type 2 diabetes

The first oral SGLT2 inhibitor approved by the FDA for treating diabetes in cats opens in a new tab or window is now approved for humans with the disease, drugmaker TheracosBios announced.

As an adjunct to diet and exercise, the oral treatment is indicated for adults with type 2 diabetes, and is not recommended for those with type 1 diabetes or for patients in diabetic ketoacidosis, according to the company. Read the full story in Medpage Today.

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Patient receives procedure to close a hole in her 32-year-old transplanted heart

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32-year-old Colleen Barber has partnered with care teams at Loma Linda University International Heart Institute longer than she can remember — from receiving a heart transplant as a baby to recently undergoing a minimally invasive procedure to close a hole called an atrial septal defect (ASD) in her transplanted heart.

Structural interventional cardiologists Jason Hoff, MD, and Amr Mohsen, MD, frequently team up to perform heart procedures that involve repairing or replacing valves and treating other structural abnormalities like holes in the heart. Read the full story from Loma Linda University News.

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Low Bacterial Diversity in Lungs Linked to Worse CF Outcomes

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Absence of a dominant genus, more diversity indicative of better lung function

People with cystic fibrosis (CF) and advanced lung disease who have bacterial communities dominated by just one type of bacteria have a higher risk of lung transplant or death than those with more diverse communities, a study reports.

The risk of needing a lung transplant or death was increased by 80% in patients with low bacterial diversity, compared with those without a dominant genus — a median survival without needing a lung transplant of 1.6 years versus 2.9 years. Read more in Cystic Fibrosis News Today.

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