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Removing Race from Estimates of Kidney Function: What Happens Next?

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“The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) announce the concurrent publication of “Special Article: Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Diseases: An Interim Report from the NKF-ASN Task Force” in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology(JASN) and the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD).

The publication in JASN and AJKD provides an essential review of the many challenges relative to identifying and implementing alternative methods to diagnosing kidney diseases. Last month, ASN and NKF asserted that race modifiers should not be included in equations used to estimate kidney function. ASN and NKF also stated that current race-based equations should be replaced by a substitute that is accurate, representative, unbiased, and provides a standardized approach to diagnosing kidney diseases.”

Read the full article, here.

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PTC: Cancer Risks for Kidney Recipients

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WHY AM I AT GREATER RISK OF DEVELOPING CANCER AFTER KIDNEY TRANSPLANT?

“All organ transplant recipients are at heightened risk of developing cancer after transplant. This is because although life-sustaining, long-term use of immunosuppressant drugs lowers the body’s ability to fend off certain cancers. When you are taking immunosuppressant drugs, your immune response is lowered, and this is what helps to prevent your body from rejecting your new kidney. It also means that your body is less able to recognize and destroy cancer cells or infections that can cause cancer.”

Read more on TRIO’s new Post-transplant Cancer Project (PTC) website, here.

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The ‘Heart’ of the Matter is That an Organ Donation Saved Sam Dey’s Life

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In 2009, Sam Dey was working for General Motors and in India on business.

It was during that business trip that Sam started falling.

“I was collapsing and falling in these incredibly crowded streets of India,” says Sam. “I was falling everywhere, and people were always pouring water on my face to revive me.”

Doctors in India told Sam—who had congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes—that his badly damaged heart would prevent him from returning to the United States.

Sam ended up being stranded in India from 2009 until 2014.

Read Sam’s full story, here.

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How Common is Cancer in Organ Transplant Recipients?

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As an organ transplant recipient, you already “know” several things:

  • You know what the anxiety and stress of end-stage organ disease feels like
  • You know that your life has been improved after receiving your transplant
  • You know that by taking care of your transplant, you can reduce the risk of rejection of the organ

Did you also know that the important immunosuppressants (anti-rejection medications) you take to prevent your body from rejecting your transplanted kidney, heart, lung, or liver may increase your risk of developing certain types of
cancer?1

While the risk of dying from cancer is low, you need to be proactive and get screened for various types of cancer—most notably skin cancer.

Read the full article, here.

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Prescription Discount and Assistance Resources

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“Use the card to receive discounts on prescriptions while helping fight kidney disease at the same time. All medications are eligible for savings, including pet meds! Every time you save using the card, the National Kidney Foundation will receive a donation from Watertree Health, at no cost to you.”

Check out more information about the program, here.

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‘Amazing’ recovery of donations, transplant rate seen during pandemic

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Organ donation and kidney transplants have made an “amazing” recovery from the worst days of the pandemic, a speaker said here, with more than 33,000 kidney transplants performed in 2020.

“There were some parts of the Northeast where there were zero living donor transplants done for weeks,” Matthew Cooper, MD, director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute and professor of surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine, said during a presentation at the virtual National Kidney Foundation Spring Clinical Meetings. “It was amazing how the country regained … the key was getting organs to areas where transplants could happen.”

Read the full article, here.

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‘Heart in a Box’ Expands Transplant Opportunities

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The Smidt Heart Institute, Home of the Nation’s No. 1 Adult Heart Transplant Program, Uses Transmedics Organ Care System (OCS) to Grow Geographic Area of Service, Enabling More Lifesaving Organ Transplants

Dominic Emerson, MD, and Pedro Catarino, MD, both transplant surgeons with the Smidt Heart Institute, know how to be spontaneous. At any given moment, they can get the call that a donor heart or lungs are available, requiring them to quickly board a private aircraft to procure the vital organs.

Until recently, those flights were quick jaunts lasting no more than four hours—the time a donor heart can survive on ice. Now that is all changing, thanks to a medical device called the OCS Heart, or “Heart in a Box,” which enables transplant surgeons to travel to much farther destinations to procure lifesaving organs by acting as a miniature intensive care unit that keeps the heart alive.

“Cedars-Sinai has the biggest adult heart transplant program in the world and takes on some of the most complex surgical cases,” said Emerson, associate surgical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support and surgical co-director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai. “The Heart in a Box technology is helping break down a major barrier of transplantation, ultimately offering many patients a second chance at life.”

Read more, here.

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information and Updates

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“Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers are working tirelessly to find ways to better understand, treat and eventually eliminate COVID-19 and the illness that results from infection. New discoveries and observations from Johns Hopkins that we share here, especially those related to clinical therapies, are almost uniformly early in concept. They will require rigorous research, testing and peer review before solid conclusions for clinical care and disease prevention can be made.

In addition, Johns Hopkins researchers are conducting a variety of clinical trials to find new ways to detect, prevent and treat COVID-19. These trials include studies involving Johns Hopkins employees, people who have COVID-19 and analysis of collected data about the illness. Results of these clinical trials will be available when data is analyzed, peer-reviewed and published.”

You can stay up to date on information and resources, here.

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New kidney and pancreas transplant allocation policies in effect

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“UNOS has implemented a new system for matching kidney and pancreas transplant candidates with organs from deceased donors.

The new approach is projected to increase equity in transplant access for candidates nationwide. It replaces distribution based on donation service area (DSA) and OPTN region with a more consistent measure of distance between the donor hospital and the transplant hospital for each candidate. This will further ensure the right organ gets to the right patient at the right time based on medical need rather than geography.

The policy was developed over nearly three years by organ donation and transplant experts, organ recipients and donor families from around the country, and input from thousands of people during three public comment cycles.

Kidney and pancreas offers will be offered first to candidates listed at transplant hospitals within 250 nautical miles of the donor hospital. Offers not accepted for any of these candidates will then be made for candidates beyond the 250 nautical mile distance.

Candidates also will receive proximity points based on the distance between their transplant program and the donor hospital. Proximity points are intended to improve the efficiency of organ placement by adding priority for candidates closer to the donor hospital. Candidates within the initial 250 nautical mile radius will receive a maximum of two proximity points, while those outside the initial circle will receive a maximum of four proximity points. The point assignment will be highest for those closest to the donor hospital and will decrease as the distance increases.”

Read all about the new policy, here.

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