At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us pivoted to providing a great deal of care over video visits — telehealth encounters over Zoom and other platforms — where patients could stay safely in their homes and still receive healthcare.
This served an incredible public health purpose, protecting patients from coming in for their routine care while still being able to give them ongoing healthcare through contact with their doctors. Read the full story.
Exercise, like daily walking, may improve overall health and impede progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD); however, no specific walking dose has been recommended for CKD patients. We aimed to investigate the association between daily walking steps and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in adults with CKD. Read more.
Despite a significant decrease in immunosuppression, the occurrence of post-COVID-19 donor-specific antibodies among COVID-19-positive kidney transplant recipients was low, according to data published in Kidney International Reports.
“Greater severity of COVID-19 has been reported in kidney transplant recipients and is most likely due to comorbidities and immunosuppressive therapy,” Christophe Masset, MD, from the Clinic Institute of Transplantation Urology Nephrology (ITUN) at the University Hospital of Nantes in France, and colleagues wrote. Read the full story.
MILWAUKEE – Glenn Stuckman of Plymouth celebrated a special anniversary Thursday – 25 years since he had a heart transplant.
Thursday, Stuckman went back to Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center where he had the procedure and met with Dr. John Crouch, the cardiothoracic surgeon who saved his life.
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Over the past 2 decades, the rate of heart transplantation among patients with pretransplant malignancy (PTM) has increased dramatically. Although heart transplant recipients with a prior malignancy may be at an increased risk for early mortality, particularly those with a hematologic cancer, death rates after the first posttransplant year are comparable between patients with and without PTM. Results of an analysis of this patient population were published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.
A contemporary retrospective analysis of adults in the United Network for Organ Sharing registry was conducted among patients with PTM who had received heart transplantation between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2020. Read more.
As of February 28, 2022, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused over 5.95 million deaths worldwide, with especially high rates of mortality reported among the elderly, frail, and immunocompromised.
Kidney transplant recipients are among the most at-risk individuals of COVID-19 due to the need for long-term immunosuppressive medication to avoid rejection. Their response to vaccination is also poor, and researchers continue to examine methods to achieve a better vaccine response in this population. Read more.
t was 4 a.m. on a humid night in St. Catharines, Ontario, and Elizabeth Ostrander couldn’t breathe. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, complicated by pneumonia, was suffocating her, doctors told her that day in 2016. If she hadn’t gotten to the hospital when she did, she would have died, Ostrander remembers them saying. She was in her early 50s.
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The next stage of the THINKER project — THINKER-NEXT — is aiming to settle any lingering concerns that patients and centers might have about using kidneys from hepatitis C (HCV)-infected donors and transplanting them into HCV-negative recipients in need of a kidney transplant.
Armed with an $8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia will evaluate the long-term risks and benefits of transplanting kidneys from HCV-positive donors into HCV-negative recipients and compare outcomes with those attained following transplantation of HCV-negative kidneys into HCV-negative recipients. Read more.
As the world continues to battle with a staggering pandemic that understandably has captured nearly every aspect of medical news, millions of people fight battles as before with major illnesses like cancer and heart disease. Among the many Americans currently suffering from potentially fatal medical conditions are those waiting for kidney, liver, or other organ transplants.
My dad Dick and aunt (and godmother) Deb are two of them. My family suffers from Polycystic Kidney Disease or PKD, a genetic disorder that reduces kidney function. Nearly half of those with PKD have kidney failure by age 60, and my father and aunt are in end-stage renal failure now. They are on the transplant list awaiting new kidneys. Read more.
Having an organ transplant can be lifesaving, and quality of life building. For most individuals in need of transplant, their journey begins with getting on the waitlist. It’s a process that may seem daunting, but knowing what to expect may alleviate some of the anxiety associated with this step. Read more.