Kidney Transplant Recipients Do Not Benefit From Infliximab Induction

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Infliximab induction therapy fails to protect kidney transplants and appears to increase the risk of BK virus infection in recipients, investigators report.

Peter Heeger, MD, of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood, California, and colleagues randomly assigned 225 unsensitized recipients of deceased-donor kidneys to receive intravenous infliximab (3 mg/kg) or saline placebo prior to kidney reperfusion. Read the full story in Renal & Urology News.

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Widely used test kept Black people from getting kidney transplants sooner. Now that’s changing.

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Kristal Higgins just wants to be healthy, become a nurse and travel to Greece. But she has kidney failure and has been on a transplant waiting list for six years. 

The disease and its comorbidities have touched many of her loved ones. Her mother has stage 2 kidney disease. Her father is diabetic, a risk factor for kidney failure, as was her late grandmother. Several of her relatives have kidney failure. Read more in USA Today.

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Kidney Transplant Outcomes in Recipients Over the Age of 70

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Published: January 20, 2023 (see history)

Cite this article as: Mehta J, Ndubueze O, Tatum D, et al. (January 20, 2023) Kidney Transplant Outcomes in Recipients Over the Age of 70. Cureus 15(1): e34021. doi:10.7759/cureus.34021


Abstract

Background: Patients older than 70 years are the fastest-growing age group of patients requiring renal replacement therapy. This has resulted in a corresponding increase in the number of elderly transplant recipients. We hypothesized that graft survival in this population would be comparable to that seen in the literature on kidney transplant recipients under 70 years of age. Read the complete abstract in Cureus.

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Revised Policy Set to Improve Kidney Transplant Waitlist Time for Black Candidates

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The Board of Directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) has approved a mandatory waiting time adjustment for Black kidney transplant candidates disadvantaged by race-based kidney function estimates. The policy revision, which went into effect on January 5, 2023, is a major step toward kidney transplantation equity. Read more in Renal & Urology News.

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Testing for coronary heart disease before kidney transplant may not lower adverse outcomes

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Testing for coronary heart disease within 12 months before kidney transplantation did not correlate with a change in death or myocardial infarction within 30 days after the transplant, according to data published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Therefore, researchers suggest that testing for coronary heart disease (CHD) may not reduce the risk of adverse outcomes after a transplant. Read more in Healio.

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University Health leads the nation in living donor kidney transplants for children

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University Health Transplant Institute marked an important annual milestone as it closed out 2022: it had performed more pediatric kidney transplants with organs from living donors than any other transplant program in the country.

The credit for much of that success goes to the Institute’s Champion for Life program, which helps patients needing organs reach potential donors. Patients identify a donor champion who supports them as they learn how to share their stories on social media and among networks of friends and relatives. Read more from University Health.

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Stanford Medicine teams awarded $18 million to improve kidney transplant and gene-editing techniques

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The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has funded Stanford Medicine projects to improve kidney transplantation and advance treatment for a rare genetic disease in children.

January 10, 2023 – By Erin Digitale

Physician-scientists at Stanford Medicine have received about $18 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for two projects to advance cutting-edge treatments for children: a clinical trial to allow kidney transplantation without the need for long-term immunosuppression, and a study of a gene-editing treatment for a rare disease that progressively damages the brain, heart and other organs. Read the full press release from the Stanford Medicine News Center here.

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Diuretics in States of Volume Overload: An Interview

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In a recent Core Curriculum published in AJKD, James Novak and David Ellison discuss the pharmacology and therapeutic use of diuretics in states of volume overload and strategies to overcome diuretic resistance. AJKDBlog’s Interviews Editor, Timothy Yau @Maximal_Change sat down with Dr. Novak @JamesNovakNeph to discuss these topics.
Read the complete article in AJKDBlog here.

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Infections and Kidney Transplant Patients: What to Know

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Undergoing any surgery puts you at greater risk for infection. But with kidney transplants, you are often at even higher risk of infection from a range of viruses and bacteria, known as pathogens, because the medications you take afterward affect your immune system.

“Medications suppress your immune system so you will not reject the new kidney,” says Nikhil Agrawal, MD, a nephrologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “This makes it harder for your body to fight off a viral or bacterial infection.”
Read the full story on CareDx.com.

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