March, 2013
AST has endorsed a new free, interactive online activity,
Pathways in CMV Case Management. This CME/CE activity was developed by Spire Learning and is supported by an educational grant from Genentech. Learn how to evaluate your transplant center's protocols for preventing and managing CMV disease in transplant recipients, and how to select the appropriate strategies to prevent and manage CMV disease in adult and pediatric transplant recipients.
Take part in this activity today.
February, 2013
Topical Live and On Demand Webinars
Meeting the Challenges of Resistance
Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 1:00 pm ET
Registration now open!
Shahid Husain, MD, MS * University Health Network
Shirish Huprikar, MD * Mount Sinai Medical Center
Camille Kotton, MD * Massachusetts General Hospital
This three-part webinar will cover the following topic areas:
Difficult to treat fungal infections
Emergence of multi-drug resistant bacterial organisms
Resistance to CMV
How do I register?...
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Late onset cytomegalovirus in lung transplant recipients: Can cmv serostatus guide the duration of prophylaxis?
Source: American Journal of Transplantation (subscription required)
Evidence supports the use of 12 months of cytomegalovirus prophylaxis in all at-risk lung transplants; whether cytomegalovirus serostatus can be used to further optimize this duration remains to be determined. The purpose of a recent retrospective study was to determine if cytomegalovirus serostatus of both donor and recipient were associated with late-onset cytomegalovirus....
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Yesterday, Congressional leaders introduced legislation to end the research ban on organ donation from HIV-Positive donors to HIV-Positive transplant recipients. The HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act would create a potential path for HIV-positive organs to be donated to HIV-positive patients, thus potentially saving the lives of transplant patients languishing on waiting lists.
Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the legislation, which charges the Department of Health and Human Services (...
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Novartis drug Zortress® is first in over a decade approved by FDA to prevent organ rejection in adult liver transplant patients
Zortress is the first mTOR inhibitor approved to prevent organ rejection in adult liver transplant patients in the US, where it is already approved for kidney transplantation
Approval based on positive outcomes from largest liver transplant study ever, comparing Zortress plus reduced-exposure tacrolimus to standard tacrolimus
Under trade name Certican®, the drug was approved by European Health Authorities for use in adult liver transplant patients in the fourth...
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Registry analysis: Inferior early posttransplant outcomes for recipients of right versus left deceased donor kidneys
Source: American Journal of Transplantation (subscription required)
Anatomical differences between right and left kidneys could influence transplant outcome. Receipt of a right kidney is a risk factor for inferior outcomes in the first year after transplantation. A higher incidence of surgical complications suggests the shorter right renal vein may be contributory. The higher susceptibility of right kidneys to injury should be considered in organ allocation....
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Last night, the Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act was reintroduced in the US Senate with the bi-partisan support of Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss). This legislation (S.323), which AST has been fighting to pass for years, will finally eliminate the current arbitrary 36-month limit on immunosuppressive drug coverage imposed on Medicare end stage renal disease (ESRD) beneficiaries.
Click here to read the press release from Senator Durbin's office with a... Read More...
Regional variability in liver waiting list removals causes false ascertainment of waiting list deaths
Source: American Journal of Transplantation
Authors examine alternative ways of assuring complete documentation of deaths on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Liver Transplant Waiting List and report that the most accurate way is to add to OPTN-reported deaths on the list of all deaths reported in the Social Security Administration Death Master File that occurred within 90 days of a patient's being dropped from the list....
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Iraq vet undergoes successful double-arm transplant
Source: CNN
A U.S. Army infantryman who lost all four limbs in a 2009 roadside explosion in Iraq has undergone radical transplant surgery that may help him regain use of his arms. In December, the 26-year-old infantryman had successful surgery — a rare double arm transplant — at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
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Blockade of p-selectin sufficient to reduce MHC I antibody-elicited monocyte recruitment in vitro, in vivo
Source: American Journal of...
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