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The Search Is On for Another Xeno Heart Transplant Recipient

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— Transplant surgeons discuss testing the concept in more humans


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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Playing by the strict rules of the FDA, xenotransplant researchers are itching to apply the lessons learned from this year’s historic case of cardiac surgery in their quest to move the transplant field forward amid a strained supply of donor organs.

In the landmark case, the first person to undergo a pig heart xenotransplant, David Bennett, age 57, had been denied a traditional human heart transplant from several programs before he ultimately agreed to the experimental surgery. The FDA green-lit the xenotransplant, and Bennett was kept alive for 60 days before succumbing to graft failure and sudden diastolic failure without evidence of traditional allograft rejection.
Read the full story in MedPage Today.

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Young Man Becomes First in World to Be Cured of FSGS With New Treatment

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Combined stem cell transplant and kidney transplant prove a winning combination against autoimmune FSGS

Imagine spending a good share of your childhood hooked up to a machine. While your friends are traveling on a bus to a school game or hanging out at the mall, you are at home or at a dialysis center tethered by cords, every day for at least three hours. A lot of kids would give up trying to keep up with life. Not 21-year-old Traejen Kingston. 
Read the full story from Stanford Children’s Health.

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FDA: Evusheld may lack efficacy against upcoming COVID-19 subvariants

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Evusheld demonstrates reduced protection against the omicron subvariant BA.4.6, resulting in an increased risk for infection in those exposed to that COVID-19 strain, according to an updated FDA fact sheet.

In the revised fact sheet, the FDA warned that providers should be aware of an increased risk for developing COVID-19 when exposed to certain COVID-19 variants that are not neutralized by tixagevimab packaged with cilgavimab (Evusheld, AstraZeneca).
Read the full story in Healio.

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Dialysis providers assess damage from Hurricane Ian

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Dialysis providers deployed disaster response teams this past week along the coast of Florida to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian while watching its path into Georgia and the Carolinas.

“Hurricane Ian impacted multiple U.S. Renal Care dialysis clinics along the west coast of Florida from Tampa to Naples, leaving many clinics without power, water, internet or phone access,” Mary Dittrich, MD, chief medical officer of U.S. Renal Care, told Healio. 
Read the full story from Healio.

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UNOS to Revamp Heart Allocation Rules to Rein in Transplant Waitlist Tricks

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— It may be goodbye to priority tiers, hello to points-based ranking system in coming years

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Four years after a major revision of the U.S. heart transplant allocation rules, deliberations are again underway on how to curb gaming of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) system.

The recent explosion in Status 2 transplant candidates with advanced heart failure would improbably suggest that “suddenly the entire country has sicker patients,” said Shelley Hall, MD, chief of transplant cardiology at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and chair of the cardiac committee for UNOS. Read more in MedPage Today.

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Age at Diabetes Onset Matters for Death, Comorbidity Risks

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— Adults diagnosed in their 50s saw far worse outcomes than those diagnosed in their 70s

Age at diabetes diagnosis was predictive of morbidity and mortality in older adults, according to data from a population-based, biennial longitudinal health interview survey.

Of 7,739 adults ages 50 and older who participated in the Health and Retirement Study survey, diabetes diagnosis at 50 to 59 years of age was significantly associated with mortality (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.29-1.71) compared with no diabetes diagnosis, reported Judy Zhong, PhD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open. Read the full story in MedPage Today.

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Despite recommendations, statin use ‘not ubiquitous’ in CKD with ASCVD

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Overall statin use among adults with chronic kidney disease is high, yet there have been only modest increases in the use of high‐intensity statins, ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors, data from a prospective 2‐year study show.

Both the 2013 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) and 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recommend at least statin therapy for adults with non‐dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) and atherosclerotic CVD, as CKD is a major risk factor for disease progression, Robert S. Rosenson, MD, director of metabolism and lipids for the Mount Sinai Health System and professor of medicine in cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues wrote. Read the full story in Healio.

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An Unexpected Tale of Friendship Amid Paired Organ Donation

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Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pavilion, she’d gazed at the Philadelphia skyline long enough, and decided to get out of bed and walk.

Three doors down, she popped into the room of her friend Dan Napoleon. He was glad to see her, and together they took selfies and live chatted with their kids’ soccer team, away at a tournament in Virginia. They wished each other well, and marveled once again at the unlikely miracle that had brought them both to the hospital’s transplant floor.
Read the full story from Penn Medicine News.

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Donating Portion of Your Liver to Someone in Need Is Safe, Life-Saving: Study

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TUESDAY, Sept. 27, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Thousands of people die every year while waiting for a liver transplant. Living-donor transplantation holds the potential to save many of these lives, yet remains underused in the United States.

During the procedure, a portion of a donor’s liver is removed and transplanted into a person with liver disease. The donor’s remaining liver returns to its normal size and capacity within a few months. Read the full story in U.S. News & World Report.

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Kidney Transplant Recipients Able to Find Stable Work Post Surgery

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A recent report found that 56% of patients from The Netherlands who underwent a kidney transplant were able to work and functioned well while working.

The proportion of people who underwent a kidney transplant in The Netherlands were able to work, and well, according to a new report published in Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology estimated.

This study also found that these patients functioned better at work after the surgery compared with before the transplant. Read more in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC).

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