Diabetic kidney disease (DKD), the most common cause of kidney failure and end-stage kidney disease worldwide, will develop in almost half of all people with type 2 diabetes. With the incidence of type 2 diabetes continuing to increase, early detection and management of DKD is of great clinical importance. Read this abstract in its entirety on BMC Medicine.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the waiting list times for pediatric heart transplants were longer than before the pandemic, but waiting list mortality did not change, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.
The researchers compared 610 children (mean age, 6.93 years) who received a heart transplant during the pandemic period, defined as March 2020 to June 2021, with 626 children (mean age, 6.74 years) who received a heart transplant during the pre-pandemic period, defined as November 2018 to February 2020. Read the full story in Healio.
Financial incentives to encourage home dialysis may be falling flat, according to a first-year analysis of Medicare’s End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices (ETC) Model.
Compared with controls, ESRD facilities and managing clinicians practicing within a hospital referral region randomized to receive financial incentives only increased the number of new patients with home dialysis in the first 90 days of treatment by a non-significant 0.12% (P=0.88), reported Yunan Ji, PhD, of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues. Read the full story in MedPage Today.
Newswise — Amsterdam, September 26, 2022 – Demand for donor livers for transplant patients outstrips supply with over 15% of waitlist patients dying after a year. A new international study offers support for increasing the use of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) in Western countries and reducing the imbalance between organ supply and demand. This study is reported in the Journal of Hepatology, the official journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, published by Elsevier.
Read more in Newswise.
Both men and women with HF faced higher risks for depression and death by suicide in the first 3 months after their diagnosis, researchers reported in JACC: Heart Failure.
“The large burden of disease associated with HF may potentially cause psychosocial distress that worsens suffering, quality of life and long-term health outcomes,” Casey Crump, MD, PhD, vice chair for research in the department of family medicine and community health at Mount Sinai, and colleagues wrote. Read more in Healio.
Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list. We often hear about the organ waiting list and the thousands of people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, but not everybody is familiar with how the listing process works. In this edition of Discuss Donation, we break down how the organ waiting list works.
Read the full article from Donate Life Colorado.
Researchers published the study covered in this summary on Research Square and it has not yet been peer reviewed.
Key Takeaways
CareDx commemorates the life of James “Jim” Gleason, a selfless leader, patient advocate, heart transplant recipient and longtime President of the Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO), who died on August 26, 2022, after battling incurable pancreatic cancer. Jim spent the last few days of his life the same way he lived his life, by being a friend and patient advocate, while also working tirelessly to ensure that his organization’s important work for the transplant community would remain unabated. Meanwhile, he remained accessible to his inner circle of family, friends, industry partners, patients, and donor families. Read more at CareDx.com.
The risk for heart disease, stroke, disability and mortality among adults with diabetes is higher for those diagnosed at age 50 to 59 years than those diagnosed at age 70 years or older, according to study findings.
In an analysis of data from adults aged 50 years and older participating in the Health and Retirement Study in the U.S., adults who reported they were diagnosed with diabetes at age 50 to 59 years had an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, disability, cognitive impairment and mortality compared with matched controls without diabetes, whereas adults diagnosed at age 70 years or older had a higher risk for only mortality compared with controls. Data did not distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Read the full story in Healio.
Columnist Sam Kirton is quick to respond to some concerning symptoms
While working on today’s column, I considered writing about my birthday on Oct. 4. Then, a topic came to me quite unexpectedly.
On Monday, Sept. 26, I had to go to the hospital. Since the pandemic began, I’ve been careful to avoid large crowds in enclosed spaces and to always wear a mask indoors. So I was quite surprised to learn I had pneumonia — a significant complication for a post-lung transplant patient. Read more in Pulmonary Fibrosis News.