Liver transplants save lives. I know because my life was saved by one.
As a liver transplant hepatologist, I’ve spent my career taking care of patients who are waiting for or have received a lifesaving liver transplant. But in 2002, my world was turned upside down: I was given the gift of life when I myself became a liver transplant recipient.
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If you play basketball for a prestigious program like the University of Southern California (USC) or professionally in China and Europe, it’s a pretty good bet you are an athlete at the top of your game.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is just not something that should rear its ugly head if your life is about proper nutrition, consistent exercise, and high-level competition.
Right?
Tiffany Archibald would beg to differ. Read more.
Following implementation of the kidney allocation system (KAS) in 2014, dialysis facilities referred more new dialysis patients and transplant centers evaluated more new patients even though fewer evaluated patients were placed onto the transplant waitlist, analysis of data from three southeastern states shows.
“Nationally, we have seen declines in waitlisting, which is an unintended consequence of this policy change. There is less urgency to waitlist patients earlier because they are not accruing time on the list based on the date they were placed on the list,” Rachel Patzer, PhD, MPH, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, told Medscape Medical News in an email. Read more.
Chronic kidney disease is defined as damage of the renal parenchyma that results in chronic deterioration of kidney function and may result in progression to end-stage renal disease. It is a non-communicable disease that includes a range of physiological disorders which are attributed to abnormal renal function and its progressive decline infiltration rate (the glomerular filtration rate).
There are five stages of kidney damage in chronic kidney disease that range from mild kidney dysfunction to complete failure. The burden of chronic kidney disease is increasing worldwide and is becoming increasingly prevalent in developing countries. Overall, the prevalence is estimated to be between 8 and 16% worldwide. Patients who have stage three or four chronic kidney disease are at a higher risk of progressing to either end-stage renal disease or death. Read more.
The relationship between CKD and mental health works in both directions. CKD can affect your mental health, and your mental health can affect your CKD.
Researchers are trying to find the connections between the kidneys and the brain to find out more about how CKD can impact mental well-being. Read more.
Living-kidney donation is a precious gift for someone who is suffering from end-stage kidney disease. If an individual’s kidneys are damaged or diseased, they may be able to donate one of their two healthy organs. The remaining kidney will then take over the functions necessary for life. Kidney donation doesn’t affect the function or survival of your remaining kidney. Many living donors go on to lead healthy lives as well. Instead, your remaining kidney may increase its capacity to function by an average of 22.4%. This is known as “compensatory growth.” Read the full story.
In January, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine announced the first peer-reviewed research outlining the successful transplant of genetically modified pig kidneys into a brain-dead human individual.
Notably, the study recipient, Jim Parsons, had two genetically modified pig kidneys transplanted in his abdomen after his native kidneys were removed. This research was successful because Parsons opted to be an organ donor, a choice that affected the course of transplantation. Although his organs were not viable for transplantation, Parsons’ body was donated to science after his family agreed to allow him to be part of the world’s first-of-its-kind xenotransplantation study with Legacy of Hope at UAB Hospital. Read more.
The kidneys play a dominant role in regulating both the volume and composition of the extracellular fluid. They function to ensure that the body maintains a homeostatic internal environment. They achieve this by excreting the appropriate amounts of several types of solutes. The substances that are ex greeted are both substances that are in excess, and therefore waste, alongside foreign compounds.
When kidneys fail, several problems result. The first-line treatment of kidney impairment, dysfunction, or failure, or dialysis and kidney transplantation, though the latter is common only for advanced (end-stage) kidney disease. Read more.
Adifficult day turned around for Dr. Dinee Simpson after she unexpectedly ran into a former patient of hers when she grabbed some coffee, as detailed in a now-viral tweet.
“Woman next to me stared at my ID badge and started to cry,” read Simpson’s tweet, which has more than 272,000 likes at the time of publication. “I did her liver transplant last year, she was so sick then. Today she had her hair did, makeup on, and looked FABULOUS.”
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Regardless of disease severity and lung transplant eligibility, patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who have access to a lung transplant center and live in more affluent areas have a higher probability of undergoing lung transplant.
“As clinicians and policymakers strive to ensure that eligible patients with IPF have equal opportunity to undergo a lung transplant, a better understanding of factors associated with lung transplant is needed,” Aparna Swaminathan, MD, assistant professor of medicine and member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues wrote. Read more.