Patients with chronic kidney disease are more willing to assume some risks of new medication as their disease advances, according to data published in Kidney Medicine.
Further, investigators found physicians might consider initiating risk vs. benefit conversations with patients when prescribing a new medication to slow disease progression. Read more.
If you have kidney disease and have experienced feelings of stress, depression and anxiety, you are not alone. We often talk about the effect kidney disease has on the body but living with kidney disease (whether you have chronic kidney disease (CKD), are on dialysis, have a transplant or care for someone with kidney disease) can be mentally challenging.
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— Studies from a special COVID-focused ECCMID pre-conference
The use of abdominal organs from COVID-19-positive donors for transplant was safe, a small study showed.
No rejection occurred among four recipients who received liver, kidney, or pancreas transplants from four COVID-positive donors, and none of the recipients acquired a COVID infection, reported Emily Eichenberger, MD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at a special COVID-focused pre-meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). Read more.
Early success with a procedure called a mitochondrial transplant offers a glimmer of hope for people fighting for survival after heart attack, stroke, and more.
If you saw six-year-old Avery in her dance class today, you’d never guess that she almost died from a heart defect. She underwent her first open heart surgery shortly after birth, and the procedure left much of her heart damaged. After two months in the hospital, she was deemed healthy enough to go home. But her mum, Jess Blias, rushed her back a few weeks later because Avery had “turned blue.” Her heart was only pumping at half its capacity, and she needed another surgery. Read more.
An artificial intelligence system shows promise in identifying signs of heart transplant rejection
Heart transplantation can be lifesaving for patients with end-stage heart failure. However, many patients experience organ transplant rejection, in which the immune system attacks the transplanted organ. But detecting transplant rejection is challenging. In its early stages, patients may not experience symptoms, and experts do not always agree on the degree and severity of the rejection when they examine heart biopsies to diagnose the problem.
Read the full story.
Researchers report it is feasible to recruit and retain acute kidney transplant recipients in trials examining prebiotics on infections and gastrointestinal symptoms, according to data published in the Journal of Renal Nutrition.
Further, they found prebiotics may improve gastrointestinal symptoms among kidney transplant recipients. Read the full story.
Heart transplantation can be a lifesaving operation for patients with end-stage heart failure. However, many patients experience organ transplant rejection, in which the immune system begins attacking the transplanted organ. But detecting transplant rejection is challenging -; in its early stages, patients may not experience symptoms, and experts do not always agree on the degree and severity of the rejection.
To help address these challenges, investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital created an artificial intelligence (AI) system known as the Cardiac Rejection Assessment Neural Estimator (CRANE) that can help detect rejection and estimate its severity. In a pilot study, the team evaluated CRANE’s performance on samples provided by patients from three different countries, finding that it could help cardiac experts more accurately diagnose rejection and decrease the time needed for examination. Results are published in Nature Medicine. Read more.
If you are considering becoming a living kidney donor, you may have questions such as:
Will I be able to live a normal life after donating a kidney?
Will donating a kidney affect my athletic performance?
Will I need to change my diet or lifestyle after donating a kidney?
Is there anything I won’t be able to do after donating a kidney?
Thousands of people donate a kidney to someone in need every year, and their experiences have given us valuable information about the kidney donation recovery process and what life is like after you donate a kidney. Read more.
Inevitably, the call comes in the dark hours of the morning, the result of something tragic. Dr. Michael McCulloch, an associate professor and pediatric cardiologist at UVA Children’s Heart Center, picks up the phone. A voice on the other end explains, as he knew it would, that a pediatric heart donation is available. Does he want it?
Urgency is never felt so keenly as when it involves organ donorship. Read the full story.
The brain-organ connection is complex. Here’s what surgeons look for before, during and after a transplantation.
Livers outnumber people in Catherine Kling’s operating room at the University of Washington Medical Center. On this particular day, the extra organ — the only one ex-vivo, cleaned and sitting on ice — arrived just hours before the transplantation, the culmination of a thoughtful and time-consuming process of diagnoses, donor locating, evaluations and transportation, all sequenced by many expert pairs of eyes and hands. Read more.