Posted on

Heart transplant patients from socioeconomically distressed communities face higher mortality, organ failure risk

Loading

By Enrique Rivero

People from socioeconomically distressed communities who underwent heart transplantation between 2004 and 2018 faced a 10% greater relative risk of experiencing graft failure and dying within five years compared to people from non-distressed communities. In addition, following implementation of the 2018 UNOS Heart Allocation policy, transplant recipients between 2018 and 2022 faced an approximately 20% increase in relative risk of dying or experiencing graft failure within three years compared with the pre-policy period. This is despite the fact that the proportion of distressed patients remained the same over both eras.  Read more from UCLA Health.

Loading
Posted on

Fixed-ratio spirometry misses COPD diagnoses in African American patients

Loading

By Isabella Hornick

A fixed-ratio criteria of FEV1/FVC less than 0.7 for COPD resulted in fewer diagnoses in African American vs. non-Hispanic white individuals, according to results published inJournal of General Internal Medicine.

“Relying only on spirometry for diagnosing COPD does not do justice to the known manifestations of the disease,” Elizabeth A. Regan, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at National Jewish Health, told Healio. Read the full article in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Race-specific approach to spirometry disadvantages Black patients

Loading

By Elana Gotkine

A race-specific approach to spirometry interpretation results in a lower lung allocation score (LAS) for Black patients and a higher LAS for White patients, according to a study published online May 26 in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

J. Henry Brems, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues examined the impact of a race-specific versus race-neutral approach to spirometry interpretation on LAS among 8,982 adults (90.3 percent White; 9.7 percent Black) listed for lung transplant in the United States between Jan. 7, 2009, and Feb. 18, 2015. At listing, the LAS was calculated using a race-specific and race-neutral approach. Read more in Medical Xpress.

Loading
Posted on

Black, Hispanic Liver Disease Patients Face Transplant Disparities, Study Says

Loading

By Matthew Griffin

(Bloomberg) — Black and Hispanic patients with a serious liver-scarring condition are less likely to receive transplants than their White peers in the US, according to researchers arguing for greater equity in providing the life-saving procedure.

Even after improvements from 2009 to 2018, Black people hospitalized for the liver ailment, cirrhosis, were only about two-thirds as likely to get transplants as White patients, according to the analysis of a national database of hospital stays. Read more in BNN Bloomberg.

Loading
Posted on

Despite narrowing the gap, racial disparities persist in liver transplantation, mortality

Loading

By Kate Burba

Disparities in receipt of liver transplantation and mortality persisted over time among hospitalized Black and Hispanic patients with decompensated cirrhosis compared with their white counterparts, according to data inJAMA Network Open.

“There had been no characterization of disparities in receipt of inpatient procedures for cirrhosis in over a decade,” Lauren D. Nephew, MD, MSCE, assistant professor of gastroenterology and hepatology and associate vice chair of health equity at Indiana University School of Medicine, told Healio. Read the full article in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

‘Access to care is key’: Closing the race disparity gap in heart transplant

Loading

By Regina Schaffer

Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of a three-part Healio Exclusive series on developments and challenges in heart transplantation. Part 1 can be viewed here.

Heart transplant is the most effective treatment for end-stage HF but it is also the scarcest of HF therapies — particularly for patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. Read the full article in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

The Truth About Black Americans and Liver Transplants

Loading

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.

Loading
Posted on

Race-Neutral Testing Could Reduce Bias in Lung Transplant Allocation, Study Suggests

Loading

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.

Loading
Posted on

Race-neutral testing could have given access to life-saving lung transplants for more black patients

Loading

Peer-Reviewed Publication

June 21, 2023 – NEW YORK, NY— Race-neutral lung function interpretation could increase access to lung transplants for Black patients with respiratory disease, according to new research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society online ahead of print.

In “Race-Specific Interpretation of Spirometry: Impact on the Lung Allocation Score,” lead researcher J. Henry Brems, MD, MBE of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and colleagues investigated how race-specific versus race-neutral equations alter the lung allocation score (LAS) and the priority for lung transplant across races. The lung allocation score determines which patients get priority on the lung transplant listing.
Read the full article from the American Thoracic Society.

Loading
Posted on

Study finds race-neutral testing could have provided access to life-saving lung transplants for more Black patients

Loading

By American Thoracic Society

Race-neutral lung function interpretation could increase access to lung transplants for Black patients with respiratory disease, according to new research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society online ahead of print.

In “Race-Specific Interpretation of Spirometry: Impact on the Lung Allocation Score,” lead researcher J. Henry Brems, MD, MBE, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and colleagues investigated how race-specific versus race-neutral equations alter the lung allocation score (LAS) and the priority for lung transplant across races. Read the full article in Medical Xpress.

Loading