Posted on

Patients without HCV can take transplants from donors with HCV without risking graft survival

Loading

Transplanting kidneys from donors who have the hepatitis C virus into patients who are HCV-negative is not associated with increased risk for early graft failure, according to a presentation at the American Transplant Congress.

“With the excellent outcomes of the new therapy of hepatitis in the last few years, we intend to examine the kidney transplant outcomes using kidneys from donors with hepatitis C,” Tarek Alhamad, MD, MS, the medical director of kidney transplantation at Washington University, told Healio. Read more in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Don’t Ignore Our Patients’ Social Needs

Loading

— Tailoring care to nuanced circumstances is essential to better health

I recently saw two different patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, both of whose hemoglobin A1c values were above the limit of detection of our point-of-care machine. My medical training taught me to treat them similarly: titrate medications, assess and encourage “compliance,” recommend home glucose monitoring, and counsel on nutrition and exercise.

But one of those patients was Ms. G, a woman who had residual weakness and visual impairment from a stroke and lived in a food desert. It was not possible for her to look at nutrition facts or a glucometer, access healthy foods, cook for herself, or walk around the neighborhood. Her dependence on loved ones made her feel depressed, ashamed, and useless, which contributed to poor eating habits. Read more in MedPage Today.

Loading
Posted on

Infliximab may lead to higher infection rate, no improvement in transplant outcomes

Loading

The use of infliximab in patients with a deceased donor kidney transplant led to increased infections and did not improve allograft survival, according to data presented at the American Transplant Congress.

“The intervention had no effect on allograft function or acute rejection,” Peter S. Heeger, MD, a professor of medicine and immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, told Healio. “Unexpectedly, we observed higher rates of infection with the BK virus, a virus that can contribute to graft dysfunction and graft loss.”
Read the full article in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Diabetes in Kidney Transplant Recipients Ups Risk for Overall Graft Loss

Loading

Type 2 diabetes in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) is associated with an increased risk for overall graft loss, with the increased risk due to death with a functioning graft, according to study findings presented at the 2022 American Transplant Congress (ATC 2022) in Boston, Massachusetts.

Vinayak Rohan, MD, of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues conducted a longitudinal study of 233,703 KTRs using 2002-2018 data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Read more in Renal & Urology News.

Loading
Posted on

Why is Everyone Talking About Xenotransplantation?

Loading

On April 13, CareDx hosted a webinar to explore the future of xenotransplantation. Panelists included Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of NYU Langone Transplant Institute, and chair of the hospital’s Department of Surgery. Dr. Montgomery led the team that did the first human xenotransplant using a pig kidney. He spent 30 years at Johns Hopkins and moved to NYU Langone in 2016. Two years later, he was the recipient of a heart transplant, which gave him a fresh and unique perspective on the transplant journey.

Dr. Montgomery was joined by Michael Curtis, president and head of Research and Development at eGenesis Inc., which is working to scale xenotransplantation to help more patients, and Jim Gleason, National President of Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO), which serves as the voice of the transplant patient. Gleason is also a heart transplant recipient who is particularly excited about xenotransplantation because he believes it addresses what he called “the #1 unmet need in transplantation: the organ supply.”

This article is adapted from our webinar conversation, edited only for clarity and length. Read the full story on CareDx.com.

Loading
Posted on

New GW Liver Transplantation Program Performs Inaugural, Multi-Organ Transplant

Loading

The GW Transplant Institute is the newest facility in the District to offer liver transplants.

The George Washington University Transplant Institute’s Liver Transplantation Program and surgeons Stephen Gray and Lynt Johnson recently completed the institute’s first liver transplant.

For the inaugural transplant, the surgical team was faced with a multi-organ procedure, replacing both the patient’s liver and kidney. Read the full story in GW Today.

Loading
Posted on

New research looks at racial disparities in kidney transplants

Loading

CINCINNATI — African Americans wait two- to four-times longer on transplant waiting lists than whites, according to the Cleveland Clinic. One health center is working to get answers and cut down the wait.

D’On Ingram received an ultrasound as a follow up to his recent kidney transplant—a surgery that was years in the making. Just 10 years ago, doctors diagnosed him with stage three renal failure. Five years later, his kidneys got weaker, and his doctor put him on dialysis.  Read the full story in Spectrum News 1 here.

Loading
Posted on

A Lifetime of Heart Care Leads to Transplant

Loading

After Coping With Congenital Heart Disease Since Birth, Andrew Solis, 21, Spent Nearly 8 Months at Cedars-Sinai Waiting for His New Heart and Liver

Newswise — LOS ANGELES — (June 13, 2022) — While many 21-year-olds celebrate their coming of age in bars and nightclubs, Andrew Solis is celebrating freedom by finally going home—equipped with a new heart and liver—after nearly eight months at Cedars-Sinai. 

“Before my heart and liver transplant, I was stuck in the hospital, feeling weak, anxious and stressed,” said Solis, a Long Beach resident who was born with a heart condition. “Now, with my new organs, I feel great—like a new person. I feel really grateful and blessed for the wonderful team that has been behind me.” Read the full story in News Wise here.

Loading
Posted on

My Post-transplant Life Is Well Worth the Cost

Loading

Almost 30 hours after my bilateral lung transplant, it was time for me to be extubated and take my first solo breath with my new lungs. My wife, Susan, was at my bedside, along with several nurses.

In a video of that day last July, you can hear Susan ask me if I’m ready to have the tube removed. I shook my head no.

But once the nurses removed the tube, an almost immediate calm came over me. I could breathe. Read more in Pulmonary Fibrosis News.

Loading
Posted on

Unexplained hepatitis is not more common in U.S. children than before the pandemic, a C.D.C. study suggests.

Loading

Officials have also been trying to determine whether the cases represent a new phenomenon or are simply a new recognition of one that has long existed; there have always been a subset of pediatric hepatitis cases with no clear cause.

cluster of cases of severe hepatitis, or liver inflammation, in previously healthy children, which date back to October 2021.  Read the full story in The New York Times.

Loading