By Erik Swain
PHILADELPHIA — An artificial intelligence-based technology that evaluates coronary inflammation predicted risk for cardiac events in patients undergoing coronary CTA, according to new study data.
In the ORFAN study presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, risk based on coronary inflammation was a strong predictor of cardiac events even in patients with no obstructive CAD showing no plaque or zero calcium score. Read the full article in Healio.
By Kyle Munz
Presenters at ASN Kidney Week 2023 emphasized the importance of patient education, awareness, and advocacy in the realm of kidney transplantation.
A session at ASN Kidney Week 2023 offered first-perspectives from patients and professionals on the growing efforts to mitigate barriers and inequities impacting patients in need of kidney transplants. Presentations featured stories from a kidney transplant recipient and donor, as well as evidence-based knowledge highlighting the needs to increase donor numbers and patient engagement. Read the full article in AJMC.
By Laurie Kaiser
At one time, individuals over age 65 typically did not qualify for a kidney transplant. Now, due to advances in medicine and longer life expectancies, these patients represent approximately 15% of all kidney transplants, according to UB researchers. Meanwhile, transplants that were performed in younger patients decades ago last longer, and these recipients are now aging.
Therefore, age-related issues can arise in some older transplant recipients that affect their long-term care and dosing of their essential immunosuppressive medicines.
Read more in UB Now.
By Stephanie Stahl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Montgomery County bakery and Facebook played critical roles in saving a life and creating a new forever friendship.
Strangers met for the first time at Penn Medicine and there was already an intense, emotional connection. Check out the full story from CBS News 3 Philadelphia.
By Kate Burba
BOSTON — A new model forecasted a “substantial clinical burden” of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease in the next 30 years, including twice as many cases of liver cancer and triple the need for liver transplantation.
“The prevalence of NAFLD has been increasing significantly both worldwide and in the U.S.,” Phuc Le, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, said at The Liver Meeting media briefing. Read the full article in Healio.
Dwayne Patterson served aboard the USS Carl Vinson. His heart transplant was at Northwestern Medicine, which operates a clinic at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago to treat advanced heart failure.
By Phyllis Cha
Dwayne Patterson is proud of his time in the Navy, and is happy that this year, he can attend a Veterans Day event somewhere near his Park Forest home.
That wasn’t the situation last year, when congestive heart failure left him unable to walk more than a few feet without feeling exhausted. Read the full story in the Chicago Sun Times.
By Monica Stonehill
BOSTON — Researchers reported similar patient and allograft survival 1 year after liver transplantation between COVID-19 positive and negative donors, showing potential for expanding organ access, according to data at The Liver Meeting.
“During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of liver transplants decreased worldwide,” Roy X. Wang, MD, of Penn Medicine, said in a related Q&A with AASLD.
Read the full story in Healio.
UCLA Health patient’s trip also pays tribute to the healing power of music.
By UCLA Health
Santa Monica resident Jernej Čopič recently concluded a four-week kayak adventure in his native Slovenia with two very special companions: his childhood best friend and kidney donor Dejan Kralj, and his beloved cello.
The trip came just one year after Čopič’s second kidney transplant at UCLA Health, in which he received a kidney from Kralj, a Slovenian whitewater kayaker who competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Read the full story from UCLA Health.
By Matthew Shinkle
Risk for developing colorectal cancer increased by 47% among individuals with type 2 diabetes, according to results from a cohort study designed to over-represent African Americans and low-income patients.
The increased risk for colorectal cancer (CRC) may be reduced by colonoscopy screening among individuals with diabetes, according to researchers. Read the complete article in Healio.
By Anna Giorgi
A heart transplant is a major surgery that involves replacing your diseased heart with a healthy donor heart. It is used as a last resort when drugs and other therapies no longer work in treating advanced heart failure.
Heart failure is a chronic problem that prevents your heart from pumping blood through the rest of your body as it should. The problem can occur as left-sided heart failure, right-sided heart failure, or congestive heart failure.1 Read the article in Verywell Health.