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Hearts from COVID-19-positive donors appear safe for transplant

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Donor hearts from people with COVID-19 may be just as safe as those from people without, finds a short-term analysis of the first such transplants done in the United States.

“These findings suggest that we may be able to be more aggressive about accepting donors that are positive for COVID-19 when patients are in dire need of an organ for heart transplantation,” study researcher Samuel T. Kim said in a news release. Kim is a third-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Read more from American Heart Association News.

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Independent Longitudinal Study Finds CareDx’s AlloSure Detects Early Signs of Rejection in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Patients

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NOVEMBER, 01, 2022

First Pediatric Study to Evaluate Use of AlloSure dd-cfDNA as Biomarker for Allograft BK Infection

Findings Add to Growing Body of Evidence Showing Clinical Value of AlloSure for Surveillance in Pediatric Kidney Transplant Patients

BRISBANE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– 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 the results of a new study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN)1 showing that CareDx’s AlloSure® Kidney donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) solution identifies early signs of allograft rejection and BK virus infection in pediatric kidney transplant patients.
Read the complete press release on CareDx.com.

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Kidney Transplant Recipients Have Insufficient Immunity During COVID-19 Illness

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Investigators have found evidence of reduced T cell immunity during COVID-19 illness followed by T cell recovery in kidney transplant recipients. Insufficient immunity appears to occur despite initial reduction of antirejection medications in these patients.

Most centers have empirically reduced anti-rejection immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19 due to concerns that immunosuppressant use would hinder anti-COVID-19 immunity, Madhav C. Menon, MBBS, of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues explained in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Read more in Renal & Urology News.

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Innovative Clinical Trial Targets Recurrent BK Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients

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Kidney transplant patients like Tessa Adolph, from Rockford, Illinois, face an age-old problem to protect their new kidney and bodies after transplant surgery: how to prevent infections while also safeguarding their new kidney from damage or rejection.

In Adolph’s case, the risk came from the BK virus.

At 19, she was diagnosed with Henoch-Schönlein purpura, a rare condition that causes small blood vessels in the body organs, including kidneys, to become inflamed and bleed. This transitioned into a condition called IgA nephropathy, or Berger’s disease, that over time can cause kidney scarring and eventual kidney failure, she said. Read the full article from UW School of Medicine and Public Health.


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Managing and Preventing Diabetes After an Organ Transplant

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Complications of posttransplant diabetes mellitus can develop quickly, but appropriate management may prevent them.

People with end-stage kidney disease achieve better quality of life and survival rates with a kidney transplant than with dialysis, but if they develop posttransplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM), they are at high risk for rapidly developing cardiovascular disease or other complications. Maria Paula Martinez-Cantarin, MD, a nephrologist and researcher at Thomas Jefferson University, describes how physicians can manage PTDM and prevent complications. Read the full article from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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Black Patients’ Odds of Kidney Transplant Referral May Have Improved

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Despite being markedly overrepresented among patients on dialysis, Black patients are less likely to be referred for a kidney transplant. Now, a recently implemented policy change may improve Black patients’ odds of a kidney transplant referral.

In September 2021, the American Society of Nephrology-National Kidney Foundation (ASN-NKF) Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases recommended that the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) creatinine equation be altered to eliminate the race variable to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in all laboratories. It also recommended more widespread use of cystatin C. Read the full article in Renal & Urology News.

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NIH-supported study finds racial disparities in advanced heart failure treatment

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White adults were twice as likely as Black adults to receive mechanical heart pumps or heart transplants

Black adults treated at advanced heart failure centers received potentially life-changing therapies, such as transplants and heart pumps, about half as often as white adults, possibly due to racial bias, a small National Institutes of Health-supported study has found. Read the full article from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

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