• Patients who received kidney transplants from donors with diabetes had better survival compared with those who remained on the waitlist. • Patients at high risk of dying while on the waitlist and those at centers with long wait times may benefit the most from transplantation with kidneys from diabetic donors.
In a study published today in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, have found that the best chance of survival, for older patients, those who live in areas with long waits for transplantation, or those who already have diabetes, may come from accepting a kidney from a deceased donor who had diabetes.
A growing number of patients who suffer severe ankle arthritis are undergoing ankle replacement surgery, enabling them to walk again without pain. Helping drive the trend are new implants and surgical techniques that are improving outcomes.
Calvin Kennedy, a nurse at UAB Hospital, is a two-time kidney transplant recipient who has no plans to live an ordinary life.
When a person loses a hand to amputation, nerves that control sensation and movement are severed, causing dramatic changes in areas of the brain that controlled these functions. As a result, areas of the brain devoted to the missing hand take on other functions. Now, researchers from the University of Missouri have found evidence of specific neurochemical changes associated with lower neuronal health in these brain regions. Further, they report that some of these changes in the brain may persist in individuals who receive hand transplants, despite their recovered hand function.
Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Maryland is looking for participants for non-surgical treatment trial.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic have identified a possible cause for a rare infection in heart and lung transplant recipients: the donor. The way in which heart and lung transplant recipients acquired a specific species of bacteria, Mycoplasma hominis, had been previously undefined, and the bacterium was difficult to test. Originally, this bacterium was considered to reside exclusively in, and be a potential pathogen of, the area of the reproductive and urinary organs – the genitourinary tract.
Researchers examined the mechanisms of B cell immune reconstitution in pediatric patients who had undergone bone marrow transplantation and discovered a disruption in the maturation of B cells – critical to the immune system – preventing the production of antibodies that fight infection.
The agenda for the TVT (Transcatheter Valve Therapies) is now available online: http://www.crf.org/tvt/the-conference/agenda. TVT 2017 is a practical three-day course featuring the latest research and state-of-the-art techniques for transcatheter aortic and mitral valve therapies. For 10 years, TVT has provided healthcare professionals with the latest advances, tools, and techniques for the treatment of valvular heart disease using nonsurgical procedures.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with collaborators across the nation, have determined that magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) can be an accurate, non-invasive tool to identify liver fibrosis in children. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the most common cause of chronic liver disease in children, and scarring of the liver, known as fibrosis, is a major determinant of clinical outcomes.
A new, personalized and noninvasive treatment using 3-D printed implants has been developed to help children born with abnormally small or missing eyes (microphthalmia/ anophthalmia, or MICA). The research is being presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) this week in Baltimore, Md.
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed biomimetic bone tissues that could one day provide new bone marrow for patients needing transplants.
Research Examines Effectiveness of Leading Treatment Approaches
Children with chronic lung diseases often must wait months or even years for a transplant, while large, immobile hospital equipment that could help them breathe easier actually may worsen their condition by overtaxing already damaged lungs.
A novel treatment offers kidney failure and kidney transplant patients with a rare disorder new hope. The treatment allows targeted elimination of plasma cell clones producing abnormal proteins that deposits in the kidneys and leads to kidney failure, according to new research.
Researchers have discovered that a new anti-rejection drug that is gentler on the kidneys after liver transplant also reduces weight gain, which is common after surgery and can lead to serious problems for transplant patients.
Treating donor corneas with a cocktail of molecules prior to transplanting to a host may improve survival of grafts and, thus, outcomes in high-risk corneal transplant patients, according to a new study led by researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.
Ten patients at Penn Medicine have been cured of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following lifesaving kidney transplants from deceased donors who were infected with the disease. The findings point to new strategies for increasing the supply of organs for the nation’s more than 97,000 patients who are awaiting kidney transplants – often for as many as five or more years.
2017 American Transplant Congress: NewYork-Presbyterian’s World-Renowned Transplant Experts at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Medical Center Presenting and Available for Comment
• Researchers have developed a risk calculator that estimates the risk of kidney failure after donation. • Overall risk was quite low, but black race and male sex were associated with increased risks of developing kidney failure in living kidney donors. • Older age was associated with greater kidney failure risk in nonblack donors, but not in in black donors. • Higher body mass index and a close biological relationship to the transplant recipient were also associated with increased risks of kidney failure.
If not for a heart transplant, Drew Wilson would have been dead last fall.
Winner of the Synthes Skull Base Award, John Y.K. Lee, MD, FAANS, presented his research, Folate Receptor Overexpression Can Be Visualized in Real Time During Pituitary Adenoma Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Surgery, during the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Scientific Meeting
In an important step toward using transplanted cells to treat liver failure, researchers demonstrate successful transplantation of fetal rat liver cells to an injured adult rat liver.
Getting the right organ to the right recipient is always a challenge. University of Montreal scientists think artificial intelligence can help.
A new clinical trial seeks to determine whether a machine that pumps warm, oxygenated blood in cadaver livers can improve the quality of the organ prior to transplant.
In October 2016, Jonathan Koch, a 51-year-old entertainment executive from Los Angeles, underwent a 17-hour procedure to replace the hand he lost to a mysterious, life-threatening illness. Six months after surgery by the UCLA hand transplant team and countless hours of physical therapy, Koch continues to make remarkable strides in his recovery.
A Chicago police officer has become the 900th patient to receive a life-saving lung transplant at Loyola Medicine. “It’s given me a whole new life,” said officer Theresa Boss-French. “Since my transplant, I have not coughed once or struggled to breathe.”
Researchers discovered three novel genetic mutations associated with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy, the most common corneal disorder requiring transplantation.
At this moment, more than 118,000 people in the United States are in need of a lifesaving organ transplant. And 64 percent of them are currently on a waiting list – to which roughly 1 person is added every 10 minutes – according to the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS). That’s 75,868 people in line for a transplant. Unfortunately, only about half of them will actually receive the transplant they need this year. In an effort to encourage more people to register as organ and tissue donors, folks at Penn Medicine are tackling the issue from a few different angles – from advocacy to research to policy.
Hematologist-oncologist Ahmad Samer Al-Homsi MD, MBA, will lead a new bone marrow transplantation program at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center for treating blood-borne cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and utilize transplantation as an adjunct to immunotherapy for solid tumors.
Surgeons at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) performed five heart transplants in four days to place the institution among an elite group of transplant centers in the country — reaching 1,000 heart transplantations.
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with a cohort of clinical collaborators from across the United States, have demonstrated the impact of low and high birth weights in developing Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), a chronic disease that often leads to a need for organ transplantation.
Phase I clinical trial evaluating safety of neural stem cell transplantation being expanded to four more qualifying participants.
• Among deceased donor kidney transplant recipients, those who were >30 kg (66 pounds) heavier than the donor had a 28% higher risk of transplant failure compared with equally weighted donors and recipients. • If the kidney was from a smaller donor of the opposite sex, the relative risk of transplant failure was further elevated to 35% for a male receiving a kidney from a female donor and 50% for a female receiving a kidney from a male donor.
Knee replacement surgery for patients with osteoarthritis, as currently used, provides minimal improvements in quality of life and is economically unattractive, according to a study led by Mount Sinai researchers and published today in the BMJ. However, if the procedure was only offered to patients with more severe symptoms, its effectiveness would rise, and its use would become economically more attractive as well, the researchers said.
A multicenter study on acute liver failure funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has increased understanding of this sometimes fatal condition since the research effort began 20 years ago, improving patient care and saving lives.
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered a method that appears to provide earlier warning of organ transplant rejection compared to standard methods, and requires only a blood test rather than a more invasive and painful needle biopsy.
Patients undergoing total hip replacement experience meaningful and lasting improvements in quality of life (QOL) through at least five years after the procedure, reports a study in the March 15 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Last year, when Jamie Hansard, executive director of undergraduate admissions at Texas Tech University, learned she would need a transplant, she said she felt overwhelmed and scared. But thanks to fellow Red Raider Sara Gragg, Hansard not only received a new kidney in a matter of months – she’s already well on her way back to a normal life.
Climbing above 4,000m can provoke abnormal heart rhythms in otherwise healthy mountaineers, with the abnormalities increasing with altitude, new research has shown.
It is no secret that the United States —in particular, New York — needs more people to register as living organ donors. According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 100,000 people in the country are awaiting a kidney transplant.
In February 1967, 6-year-old Tommy Hoag became the first Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) patient ever to undergo a kidney transplant. On Tuesday, March 7, 2017, Hoag and his childhood nephrologist Dr. Richard Fine reunited at the hospital to mark the 50th anniversary of Hoag's transplant.
Study shows typically ‘mild’ respiratory virus can turn into deadly pneumonia in this vulnerable population, points to need for effective meds, better prevention
A nanomaterial-based bone regeneration technology developed at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock already proved effective in saving a prized bull. In the future, it could help everyone from patients to soldiers to car crash victims more fully recover from traumatic bone ailments injuries.
Researchers from Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Medical Center have—for the first time—maintained a fully functional lung outside the body for several days. They designed the cross-circulation platform that maintained the viability and function of the donor lung and the stability of the recipient over 36-56 hours, used the advanced support system to fully recover the functionality of lungs injured by ischemia and made them suitable for transplant. (Nature Biomedical Engineering 3/6)
• Kidney rejection initiated by antibodies that were present before transplantation is linked with a better outcome that rejection due to antibodies that arise after transplantation.
Researchers report that the use of opioid pain medications may play a significant role in patient outcomes following liver transplantation.
University of Minnesota researchers have discovered a groundbreaking process to successfully rewarm large-scale animal heart valves and blood vessels preserved at very low temperatures. The discovery is a major step forward in establishment of tissue and organ banks.
The goal of the study was to explore whether fecal microbiota from human IBS patients with diarrhea has the ability to influence gut and brain function in recipient mice. Using fecal transplants, researchers transferred microbiota from IBS patients with or without anxiety into germ-free mice. The mice went on to develop changes both in intestinal function and behavior reminiscent of the donor IBS patients, compared to mice that were transplanted with microbiota from healthy individuals.
A new paper from Michigan Medicine researchers examined the scarring process in transplanted lungs in hopes of identifying novel therapies to stop scarring before it starts.
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