March 22 - Recent Transplant News
Monday, March 25, 2013
Microvascular damage in type 1 diabetic patients is reversed in the first year after simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplantation
Source: American Journal of Transplantation (subscription required)
Simultaneous pancreas–kidney transplantation (SPK) is an advanced treatment option for type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients with microvascular disease including nephropathy. Sidestreamdarkfield (SDF) imaging has emerged as a noninvasive tool to visualize the human microcirculation. This study assessed the effect of SPK in diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients on microvascular alterations using SDF and correlated this with markers for endothelial dysfunction. Read more.
CDC confirms rabies death in organ transplant recipient
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have confirmed that a patient who recently died of rabies in Maryland contracted the infection through organ transplantation done more than a year ago. The patient was one of four people who had received an organ from the same donor. CDC laboratories tested tissue samples from the donor and from the recipient who died to confirm transmission of rabies through organ transplantation. Read more.
'Warmed liver' transplant first
Source: BBC News
Surgeons in London have carried out the first 'warm liver' transplant using an organ which was 'kept alive' at body temperature in a machine. Usually donor livers are kept on ice, but many become damaged as a result. The patient, 62-year-old Ian Christie from Devon, is doing well after the operation at King's College Hospital. The technology was developed by scientists at Oxford University who hope it could increase the number of livers available for transplant. Read more.
Coronary events in patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation: Perioperative evaluation and management
Source: Clinical Transplantation (subscription required)
Patients with advanced liver disease have a high prevalence of cardiac risk factors. The stress of liver transplant surgery predisposes these patients to major cardiac events, such as myocardial infarction or ventricular arrhythmias in addition to heart failure exacerbation. Thorough screening and optimal management of underlying cardiovascular pathology and cardiovascular risk factors should decrease the incidence of new cardiac events in liver transplant recipients. Read more.
The use of extracorporeal membranous oxygenation in donors after cardiac death
Source: Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation (subscription required)
The use of ECMO in donors after cardio-circulatory death should be encouraged and further developed. Experimental work is in progress to better define the optimal conditions of the technique, which will help to limit or even repair the injuries, induced by warm ischaemia. Read more.
Quality assessment and performance improvement in transplantation: Hype or hope?
Source: Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation (subscription required)
Healthcare reform and the national quality strategy is increasingly impacting transplant practice, as exemplified by quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) regulations for pretransplant and posttransplant care. Transplant providers consider not just patient comorbidities, donor quality and business constraints, but also regulatory mandates when deciding how to care for transplant candidates and recipients. This review describes transplant quality oversight agencies and regulations, and explores recent literature on the pros and cons of transplant QAPI. Read more.
Cytokine concentrations and regulatory T cells in living donor and deceased donor liver transplant recipients
Source: Pediatric Transplantation (subscription required)
Outcomes of pediatric liver transplantation have constantly improved in the last decade. Living-related liver transplantation does not seem to improve long-term outcomes following liver transplantation, but few studies have evaluated immunological parameters of the alloimmune response after living vs. deceased donor organ transplantation. Living-related liver transplantation may have potentially beneficial immunological aspects, although long-term outcomes do not seem to be better in recipients of living donor organs than in recipients of deceased donor organs. Further studies are needed to compare immunological aspects of the two transplant procedures. Read more.
Old age alone should not prevent kidney transplants
Source: Renal & Urology News
Elderly individuals should not be disqualified as kidney transplant recipients solely on the basis of age, researchers reported at the 28th annual congress of the European Association Urology. Dr. Niall J. Dempster and colleagues in the Department of Surgery and Transplantation at Western Infirmary in Glasgow, U.K., reviewed data from 762 renal transplants performed from January 2001 to December 2010. They compared the rate of delayed graft function (DGF) and biopsy-proven acute rejection (BPAR), and other outcomes among elderly patients (older than 65 years) with those among younger patients. Read more.
Umbilical cord blood stem cell transplants may be an effective alternative to treat Hurler's syndrome
Source: News-Medical.net
Transplants of blood-forming stem cells from umbilical cord blood may be an effective alternative to transplants of matched donor bone marrow stem cells to treat children with a rare, debilitating disease known as Hurler's syndrome (HS), according to results of a study published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Read more.