“Your kidneys play a vital role in balancing the amount of fluid in your body, detecting waste in your blood, and knowing when to release the vitamins, minerals, and hormones you need to stay alive. They do this by disposing of waste products and turning them into urine.”
Lear more from UNOS here.
“Even people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) were able to bolster an immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine, researchers reported.
According to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 studies, the overall immunogenicity rate for people on dialysis was 86% (95% CI 81-89), noted Chih-Hsiang Chang, MD, of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, Taiwan, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open.
After the first vaccination dose, those on dialysis saw an immune response rate of 41% (95% CI 32-52, I2=87.3%), which subsequently jumped to 89% (95% CI 85-91, I2=66.7%) after the second dose.”
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“The liver has many functions that are necessary for life. The liver helps process carbohydrates, fats and proteins, and stores vitamins. It processes nutrients absorbed from food in the intestines and turns them into materials that the body needs for life.
For example, the liver makes the factors that the blood needs for clotting. It also secretes bile to help digest fats, and breaks down toxic substances in the blood such as drugs and alcohol. The liver is also responsible for the metabolism of most drugs.”
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“New data being presented at the 2021 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting show patients with heart failure who are recipients of liver transplants are at an increased risk of adverse events, including death.
A team, led by Zahid I. Tarar, MD, University of Missouri School of Medicine, measured the effect of pre-existing heart failure on patient outcomes for individuals admitted to the hospital for liver transplants.”
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“Many kidney failure patients struggle with insomnia and other types of sleep disorder. Learn how common this is, the risks, what these patients go through, and how to manage it.
Are you or a loved one a chronic kidney disease (CKD) patient that struggles with sleeping well at night? Insomnia is a common sleep disorder among all individuals but especially those with kidney failure. It is characterized by persistent difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep and poor subjective sleep quality. Learn more about insomnia and kidney failure, including the prevalence, causes, potential consequences, and treatment options.”
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“Every year, more than 100,000 people in the United States wait for an organ donation. More than a dozen people will die each day still waiting. Such is the brutal math and the necessary optimism required to work in the organ procurement world.
For the past several decades, a private network of now 57 organ procurement organizations (OPOs) have sprouted up, all broadly affiliated with UNOS, the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit which matches donated organs with potential recipients under contract with the federal government.”
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“When you breathe, you transport oxygen to the body’s cells to keep them working and clear your system of the carbon dioxide that this work generates. The lungs take in air from the atmosphere and provide a place for oxygen to enter the blood and for carbon dioxide to leave the blood. The lungs are divided into sections, with three on the right and two on the left.”
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“Moderately or severely immunocompromised” adults ages 18 and up who received an additional dose of Pfizer or Moderna’s mRNA vaccines may now receive a booster dose of Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson at least 6 months after completing their third dose, the agency said.
They added that if a moderate to severely immunocompromised adult has received a two-dose series of Pfizer or Moderna, and more than 28 days has elapsed, that person should “immediately” receive an additional dose of Pfizer or the full-dose volume of 100 μg for Moderna, followed by a single booster dose with any of the three authorized vaccines at least 6 months later.”
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“A heart transplant may be the most dramatic surgery done in the operating room. Each step takes great precision, from the quick, careful journey to retrieve the heart to the preparation of the recipient, who may be gravely ill and bedridden. The best part is the outcome soon after the transplant, when the patient goes home and starts returning to his or her life—whether that means getting married, having babies, running in marathons, or simply breathing massive sighs of relief while strolling around the neighborhood without having to periodically stop to catch a breath.”
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“A common genetic variant predicted poor outcomes from peritoneal dialysis, suggesting a potential factor for patient selection and treatment, researchers found.
Variants in AQP1, the gene that encodes for a key water transport channel across the peritoneal membrane, were associated with decreased ultrafiltration while on peritoneal dialysis and a 70% increased risk of death or failure of that form of dialysis as well.
The 10-16% of patients with the TT genotype of the rs2075574 variant could be good candidates for precision medicine in dialysis treatment, Johann Morelle, MD, PhD, of the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, Belgium, and colleagues reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.”
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