By Shawn M. Carter
Healio has compiled a list of the most-read nephrology cover stories in 2023.
Readers were most interested in health equity in home dialysis, BMI requirements before transplantation, value-based care to treat chronic kidney disease and more.
Read the article in Healio.
By Caitlyn Stulpin
When given together, Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine and the seasonal influenza vaccine generated robust immune responses and were well tolerated among older adults when coadministered, data from a recent study showed. Read the article in Healio.
By Nicole C. Brambila and Noah Festenstein
Surgeons at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital’s transplant center in Aurora performed what is believed to be the first robotic liver transplant surgery on a living donor in the Rocky Mountain region, officials announced in a news release.
“We are never satisfied with where we are,” said Dr. Elizabeth Pomfret, Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at UCHealth, in the release.
Read the full story in The Denver Gazette.
For close to 50 years, Tampa General Hospital has been a national leader in life-saving organ transplantation. In 2022, the TGH Transplant Institute performed 682 transplants, a 20% increase in the number of procedures over 2021. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the national rate of transplants grew by 3.7% in 2022 over 2021. Read more in the West Orlando News.
The Center for Liver and Hepatobiliary Diseases at Mercy in conjunction with the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) offers a Liver Transplant Clinic to help patients through the liver transplant process.
Mercy hepatologists including Dr. Paul Thuluvath, Dr. Anurag Maheshwari and Dr. Hwan Yoo meet with UMMC transplant surgeons in hosting the clinic to evaluate patients who may benefit from a potential transplant. Read more in News Medical Life Sciences.
For many patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), the treatment that provides the longest and best quality of life is a kidney transplant. Recently, the U.S. transplant system achieved a record milestone, with over 40,000 organ transplants performed in 2021. Despite this achievement, there are still many more people waiting years for a kidney than there are kidneys available. The transplant ecosystem, while functioning well, could be significantly improved with additional reforms. Read more in MedPage Today.
A daily total of 3,800 to 9,800 steps was tied to lower dementia risk, longitudinal data from the U.K. Biobank showed.
The optimal dose of daily steps — the value with the highest dementia risk reduction — was 9,826 steps (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.39-0.62), according to Borja del Pozo Cruz, PhD, of the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, and colleagues. Read more in MedPage Today.
As a transplant recipient, you seek to protect your health in many ways, including taking immunosuppressant medications. By preventing your immune system from rejecting your new organ, these therapies play a critical role in your care. But they also come with side effects, including an increased risk for skin cancer.
Fortunately, you can work with your doctors to prevent skin cancer or detect it early, when it’s most treatable. Getting screened for skin cancer during appointments, checking yourself for skin changes at home and following sun protection guidelines can help keep you healthy. Read the full article on CareDx.com.
Symptoms of insomnia and sleep apnea were associated with a 56% increased risk for all-cause mortality, researchers reported in Sleep Epidemiology.
“Insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea are the two most common sleep disorders, each occurring in 10% to 30% of the general population, but in many patients the conditions can occur at the same time in what we call comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea,” Alexander Sweetman, PhD, co-author and a research fellow at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health at Flinders University in Australia, said in a release from the university. Read the full story in Healio.
Lifestyle modification, including increased physical activity and a healthy diet, is the “most important step” in the management of cardiometabolic risk factors driving hypertension in children and teens, according to a consensus statement.
The new consensus statement focusing on hypertension in children aged 6 to 16 years, published in European Heart Journal, notes that inactivity, diets high in sugar and sodium, and excess weight account for nine in 10 cases of hypertension in children and adolescents. Read more in Healio.