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Heart-Saving AI

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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.
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AI system can help detect the degree and severity of heart transplant rejection

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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.

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How Will My Life Change After Donating a Kidney?

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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.

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DECISIONS IN A HEARTBEAT: HOW 2 UVA RESEARCHERS HELP CHILDREN ON TRANSPLANT WAITLIST

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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.

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What Happens in the Brain When an Organ Transplant is Rejected?

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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.

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After Two Kidney Transplants, Tiffany Archibald is On Top of Her Game More Than Ever

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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.

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Kidney Policy Increases Patient Referrals, Evaluations

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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.

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Risk Factors for Chronic Kidney Disease

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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.

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