By Deborah Kotz
A new study published in The Lancet on June 29 has revealed the most extensive analysis to date on what led to the eventual heart failure in the world’s first successful transplant of a genetically modified pig heart into a human patient. This groundbreaking procedure was conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) physician-scientists in January 2022 and marked an important milestone for medical science. Read the full article in UMB News.
By Maia Niguel Hoskin, PhD
For Black Americans with liver cancer, getting a transplant can be especially arduous and daunting. And even though the procedure has a success rate of 85 to 90 percent, according to Cleveland Clinic, liver recipients who are Black are less likely to survive than those who are white or Hispanic.
Hugo Hool, MD, an oncologist and the director of the Hunt Cancer Institute at Torrance Memorial, in California, says racial disparities are so significant that race alone is the biggest predictor of who is likely to die of liver cancer — for both people who have had a transplant and those who have not.
Read the full article in Everyday Health.
By Jake Remaly
Sara Kathryn Smith, MD, knows better than most that studying pediatric organ transplant recipients in adulthood can be a challenge.
Smith, the medical director of pediatric liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, is a transplant recipient herself.
“Following somebody 20, 30 years after a liver transplant when they are out there running their life and having no issues at all, it is hard to convince them to come back every month for labs,” Smith said. Read the full article in Medscape.
By Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Imagine a day when a urine test could inform a doctor precisely why a kidney transplant patient was experiencing organ rejection and suggest the best medication for specifically addressing the problem.
That day took a leap closer to reality thanks to a remarkable set of single-cell analyses that have identified the most specific cellular signatures to date for kidney transplant rejection. The findings were detailed May 25, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Read more in Medical Xpress.
Richmond, Va., – The Board of Directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, at its meeting June 26, unanimously approved measures intended to improve the process kidney transplant programs use to consider available organ offers. By making better usage of offer filters, kidney offers may be made more efficiently to programs that are most likely to accept such offers for their candidates.
“Every transplant program is responsible for deciding which characteristics of donor organs are acceptable for their transplant candidates,” said Jerry McCauley, M.D., M.P.H., president of the board. Read the full article from UNOS here.
By Ellen Kenny
One young woman got a second chance at life following a heart transplant – and then a chance to be immortalised when she gave her old heart to a museum.
In 2006, Jennifer Sutton was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a disease that stiffens some of the heart’s chambers, preventing blood from pumping around the body. Read the full article in Newstalk.
The following is a summary of “Patterns in Use and Transplant Outcomes Among Adult Recipients of Kidneys From Deceased Donors With COVID-19,” published in the May 2023 issue of Nephrology by Ji et al.
For a study, researchers aimed to determine the kidney utilization patterns and transplant outcomes in adult recipients of deceased donor kidneys with active or resolved COVID-19. This study analyzed the information from 35,851 deceased donors (71,334 kidneys) and 45,912 adult patients who underwent kidney transplantation between March 1, 2020, and March 30, 2023. Read the complete article in Physician’s Weekly.
By Rose McNulty
Interpreting spirometry with race-specific reference equations led to a lower Lung Allocation Score (LAS) for Black patients and higher LAS among White patients, which could potentially contribute to racially biased allocation of lung transplants.
Interpreting spirometry with race-specific reference equations led to a lower Lung Allocation Score (LAS) for Black patients and higher LAS among White patients,1 which could potentially contribute to racially biased allocation of lung transplants, according to new research published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society. Read the full article in AJMC.
By Doug Evans
FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. – FOX 5 brought together two local men whose lives were changed forever by a kidney transplant back in February. FOX 5 first reported on McIntosh High School athletic director Leon Hammond’s need for a donated kidney last November and U.S. Secret Service agent Alan Reeves who gave him that gift of life. It’s now three months since the transplant surgery. Read or watch the full story from Fox 5 Atlanta.
HOUSTON (JUNE 28, 2023) – The Texas Children’s Hospital Heart Failure Team has been named the 2023 Outstanding Heart Failure Care Team award winner by the Heart Failure Society of America. The team will be formally recognized at an award ceremony in Cleveland, OH later this year.
The Heart Failure Team is part of Texas Children’s Heart Center, recently ranked #1 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report for pediatric cardiology and heart surgery for the seventh consecutive year. The team is uniquely suited to care for the most complex cardiac patients from infancy to adulthood with its world-class expertise in fetal and neonatal cardiology, congenital heart surgery, cardiac intensive care, and adult congenital heart disease. Read the full article from Texas Children’s Hospital.