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How organ donations broke records even during the pandemic

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Last fall, Jeff Hackman’s kidney disease turned serious. He felt tired all the time, got winded easily. Years earlier, his older sister, Dawn Martin of Marietta, made a promise: when the time comes, she would gladly donate one of hers. Within a few months, the siblings, who were a good match, passed a battery of tests, and a surgery date was set for Dec. 8.

But with omicron sweeping through the country at a dizzying pace, the siblings were filled with worry about the timing for this life-saving procedure, concerned the pandemic could delay the surgery or even thwart the procedure indefinitely. Click here to read the story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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New study reveals that healthy plant-based diets are associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes

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New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) finds that the consumption of healthy plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee, and legumes, is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) in generally healthy people and support their role in diabetes prevention. Read the study in ScienceDaily here.

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CareDx, the Leading Sponsor of UNOS Transplant Management Forum, Demonstrates the Value of Digital Solutions to Improve Pre-Transplant Patient Referral and Waitlisting Workflow

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CareDx’s TxAccess Digital Platform Helps Move Pre-Transplant Patients to Transplant Faster

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 11, 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 it will host a lunch and learn session offering strategies and digital solutions to help transplant centers thrive in the midst of increasing volumes, changing metrics, and staff burnout, during the annual UNOS Transplant Management Forum (TMF) taking place April 11-13 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Read more on CareDx. com here.

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Low-Salt Diet Helpful for HF Symptoms, but Not Necessarily for Clinical Events

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— Sodium restriction still holds its ground in SODIUM-HF trial


WASHINGTON — A dietary intervention reduced sodium intake, but did not reduce clinical events, for people with heart failure (HF), according to the SODIUM-HF trial.

Between patients randomized to a low-sodium diet or usual care for 12 months, there was no statistically significant difference in the combined outcome of cardiovascular-related admissions to hospital, cardiovascular-related emergency department visits, and all-cause death in the trial (15% vs 17%, HR 0.89, 95% CI 0.63-1.26), reported Justin Ezekowitz, MBBCh, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Read more in MedPage Today.

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Hepatitis C and Kidney Transplants: Possibilities, Risks, and Outlook

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Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver damage. It’s spread through contaminated blood, for example, if you inject drugs with a needle that was used by someone with the virus.

It doesn’t typically cause symptoms right away, so it’s hard to know if you have it. Over time, though, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) can start to affect your liver function, leading to symptoms like fatigue and jaundice. Read the full story in Healthline here.

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Stroke While on LVAD No Barrier to Successful Heart Transplant

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— It doesn’t help, for sure, but it doesn’t seem to hurt greatly either

SEATTLE — Perhaps the biggest downside of left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) for people with end-stage heart failure is the substantial risk of strokes they bring. But a new study indicates that patients can still proceed to successful heart transplant after an LVAD-related stroke.

Among patients suffering strokes after receiving LVADs as bridge-to-transplant therapy at one major referral center, and then proceeding to transplant, medium- and long-term outcomes were just as good as for stroke-free LVAD recipients, reported Aaron Shoskes, DO, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Read more on MedPage Today.

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Post-Transplant Diabetes Risk Informed by Polygenic Risk Profiles in Donors, Recipients

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NEW YORK – Taking organ donor and recipient genetics into consideration — via a polygenic risk score (PRS) — may help identify individuals at risk of developing diabetes after a solid organ transplant.

“Our study demonstrates the importance, and the potential application, of PRS in solid organ transplantation,” co-first and corresponding author Abraham Shaked, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Transplant Institute, and his coauthors wrote in Nature Medicine on Thursday. Read the story in GenomeWeb here.

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‘Lungs In A Box’ Procedure Could Drastically Reduce Organ Waitlists: Doctors

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A unique lung transplant procedure has arrived at Northwestern Medicine in downtown Chicago

A unique procedure at Northwestern could cut down long waiting lists for those in need of a lung transplant.

Nicknamed “lungs in a box,” the ex-vivo lung perfusion procedure allows donated lungs to be examined for hours at a time on a machine – after being extracted from the body. The organs are then hooked up to a machine that simulates the breathing of a human body.
Read/watch the full story on NBC 5 Chicago here.

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Roadblocks need to be eliminated to improve access to transplants

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Transplant programs erect several bureaucratic roadblocks that can stall efforts by patients to obtain a kidney transplant, a speaker said at the National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings.

“We need to get out of the rut created by the organ transplant system,” Eliot C. Heher, MD, founder of Square Knot Health Inc. and previously the medical director of kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in the presentation. Read more of this article on Healio.com here.

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