By Natasha Persaud
Certain kidney transplant recipients, such as those with anemia, have increased risks of venous thromboembolism, investigators reported at the 2023 American Transplant Congress in San Diego, California.
Investigators matched 65 recipients at their institution who experienced venous thromboembolism with 65 recipients who did not by age and year of transplantation. Median patient age at transplantation was 54 years. Read the full article in Clinical Pain Advisory.
By Jared Kaltwasser
Vaccines were safe in transplant recipients, but their efficacy was affected by immunosuppressive therapies.
People who undergo kidney transplantation appear to have better outcomes from COVID-19 compared with those waiting for transplants, according to a new review.
However, the report also found that the immunosuppressive regimens associated with the procedure can complicate efforts to protect patients from the virus. The report was published in Cureus. Read more from the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC).
By Natasha Persaud
Age and sex affect how kidney transplant recipients experience symptoms, new study findings suggest.
Investigators assessed the incidence and severity of 62 symptoms via questionnaire among 631 Dutch kidney transplant recipients with a functioning graft. Read more in Renal & Urology News.
Yorg Al Azzi, MD, and colleagues at Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York, conducted an analysis to examine the variation in mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infection in kidney transplant recipients during the course of the pandemic. Results were reported during a poster session at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2022 in a poster titled Decreased Mortality From SARS-CoV-2 in Kidney Transplant Recipients Over the Course of the Pandemic. Read more in Nephrology Times.
Giving adult kidney transplant recipients sodium bicarbonate to correct metabolic acidosis may not help preserve graft function and instead represents an unnecessary “pill burden,” new clinical trial data from Switzerland suggest. Read more in Medscape.
Infliximab induction therapy fails to protect kidney transplants and appears to increase the risk of BK virus infection in recipients, investigators report.
Peter Heeger, MD, of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood, California, and colleagues randomly assigned 225 unsensitized recipients of deceased-donor kidneys to receive intravenous infliximab (3 mg/kg) or saline placebo prior to kidney reperfusion. Read the full story in Renal & Urology News.
Since the first kidney transplant more than 60 years ago,1 doctors have developed a deeper understanding of how to protect donated organs. With newer medications and improved management, it’s less likely transplanted kidneys will undergo rejection by the immune system. Read the full story on CareDx.com.
1. In this scoping review, religiosity and spirituality (R/S) were positively associated with the well-being of kidney transplant recipients, primarily through increased adherence to immunosuppressant medication and coping.
2. Locus of control had a significant impact on adherence to immunosuppressive medications post-kidney transplantation.
Read more in 2 minute medicine.
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).
Compared with the Kaplan-Meier estimator, researchers found multi-state models provided a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of the life course and graft risk of older kidney transplant recipients.
“As a result of excellent graft survival in older patients and, inevitably, relatively high mortality, most older kidney recipients can expect to die with a functioning graft. Also noteworthy is the fact that there is an increased rate of early graft failure in elderly patients, at least in part due to higher use of expanded criteria kidneys in this age group,” Thomas Vanhove, MD, PhD, from Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues wrote. Read more in Healio.