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Almost Half of Americans Would Consider Donating Kidney to Stranger: Poll
Posted 25 Apr 2013 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 25 – Nearly half of Americans now say they would consider donating a kidney to a stranger, a new survey finds. The number was even higher – 84 percent – when the Mayo Clinic's national poll asked respondents whether they would be very or somewhat likely to consider donating a kidney or portion of their liver to a close friend or family member. The results reveal an uptick in people's willingness to consider donating an organ. A 2001 Gallup survey found that 76 percent of respondents would likely donate a kidney to a close friend, while 24 percent said they would give a kidney to a stranger. The new findings are encouraging, said Dr. Mikel Prieto, surgical director of kidney transplantation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "As living organ donation becomes more widely known and accepted – and as the safety and surgical proficiency continue to improve – we hope ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant
More U.S. Kidney Exchanges Would Allow 1,000 Additional Transplants Yearly
Posted 14 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, March 14 – An extra 1,000 patients in the United States could receive kidney transplants each year if hospitals performed more transplants using paired kidney exchanges, according to a new study. These exchanges, also called kidney chains, allow incompatible donors to give a kidney on a loved one's behalf, and in return the loved one gets a compatible kidney from another person – usually a stranger. The first such exchange took place in 1999 and the numbers have increased from 93 in 2006 to 553 in 2010. However, this growth has stalled, mainly due to financial issues related to logistics, administrative costs and insurance coverage for donors, Johns Hopkins researchers said. "There are more than 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the United States," study leader Dr. Dorry Segev, an associate professor of surgery and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University ... Read more
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Blacks Less Likely to Receive Kidney Transplant Early On, Study Finds
Posted 31 Jan 2013 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Jan. 31 – Black people and those without private health insurance are less likely than others to receive a kidney transplant before their condition deteriorates to the point that they need dialysis, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore. This racial health disparity shows that more needs to be done to ensure the equitable timing of transplants, the researchers said. They added that the longer patients remain on dialysis, the worse they do after receiving a donor kidney. "We found that, while some regions performed ... transplants more than others, region was not a big factor in determining preemptive transplant rates," Dr. Morgan Grams said in a university news release. "Rather, we were struck by the disparities by race and insurance type: African-Americans were much less likely to receive kidney transplantation prior to ... Read more
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Obese Patients Urged to Lose Weight Before Kidney Transplant
Posted 21 Jan 2013 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Jan. 21 – Obese people who receive kidney transplants appear to be at increased risk for problems such as wound infections, transplant failure and heart disease during their recovery, researchers have found. Obese kidney transplant patients also have higher health care costs than non-obese patients, the Saint Louis University researchers said. The new findings are based on an examination of data from multiple studies and were released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the American Journal of Nephrology. "Lifestyle alterations that seem reasonable to improve health outcomes should be encouraged," study co-leader Dr. Betsy Tuttle-Newhall, director of abdominal transplant, said in a university news release. "Just as we require patients with alcoholic liver disease to stop drinking prior to transplant, it is reasonable to ask kidney transplant ... Read more
Related support groups: Obesity, Renal Transplant
Donor Kidney Re-Used in Second Patient After Failing in First
Posted 25 Apr 2012 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, April 25 – In a groundbreaking medical report, U.S. doctors describe a case where a kidney transplanted into one patient had to be removed but was then successfully transplanted into another patient. The team at Northwestern University in Chicago said that Ray Fearing, 27, received a kidney from his sister after he developed kidney failure due to a disease called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). The disease causes scar tissue to develop on the part of the kidney that filters waste out of blood. However, just days after receiving the new kidney Fearing showed signs of a disease recurrence and doctors told him they had to remove the new organ. The doctors also told Fearing they could potentially save another person's life by re-transplanting the organ – something that had never succeeded before with a kidney. "In over 50 percent of cases, transplant does not stop ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant
Stem Cell Therapy Could Boost Kidney Transplant Success: Study
Posted 20 Mar 2012 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, March 20 – A novel technique that uses a kidney transplant recipient's own stem cells may someday replace or reduce the initial use of anti-rejection medications, new research suggests. Six months after receiving a kidney transplant, only about 8 percent of people given their own mesenchymal stem cells experienced rejection compared with almost 22 percent of people on the standard anti-rejection drugs, according to the study. "Mesenchymal stem cells are stem cells that can be differentiated into a variety of cells," explained Dr. Camillo Ricordi, study senior author and director of the Cell Transplant Center and Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "If you infuse mesenchymal stem cells at the time of the transplant, you could replace the use of powerful anti-rejection drugs, and maybe replace immunosuppressants altogether," he said. ... Read more
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Black Children Less Likely to Get Kidney Transplant Before Dialysis
Posted 10 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Nov. 10 – Minority children are less likely than white children to get a kidney transplant before their kidney disease gets so bad they need dialysis, U.S. researchers find. They also found that black children with kidney failure and no health insurance are more likely than whites to die while waiting for a kidney transplant. The Emory University researchers analyzed 2000-08 data from the U.S. Renal Data System, and found that white children had a 56 percent higher average annual rate of preemptive transplants than blacks and a 50 percent higher rate than Hispanics. A preemptive transplant is one performed before a patient begins dialysis. White children were also more likely to have a living donor. Nearly 79 percent of whites had living donor, compared to 57 percent of Hispanic children and 49 percent of black children. The reasons for these racial disparities aren't clear, ... Read more
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Kidney Donation Doesn't Put Older Adults at Risk
Posted 3 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, Nov. 3 – People older than 70 can donate a kidney without risking their lives but their donated kidneys don't last as long as those from younger living donors, a new study shows. However, kidneys from living elderly donors last just as long as kidneys from deceased donors, the researchers said. The findings are important in light of the serious shortage of donor kidneys in the United States. Nearly 90,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant and many of them will die before a suitable kidney becomes available, according to background information in a journal news release. In this study, researchers compared 219 healthy adults older than 70 who donated a kidney with healthy adults in the same age group who did not donate an organ. Those who donated a kidney were no more likely than non-donors to die within one, five or 10 years. Instead, organ donors had a lower death ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant
Densensitization Procedure Helps Hard-to-Match Kidney Recipients
Posted 27 Jul 2011 by Drugs.com
WEDNESDAY, July 27 – A combination therapy that "desensitizes" kidney transplant recipients could help hard-to-match patients find a needed kidney faster. The desensitization procedure combines the use of plasmapheresis – a machine that filters the blood plasma to remove antibodies – and low-doses of a medication called intravenous immune globulin (IVIG). The combination of these therapies improves survival rates dramatically. Eight years after receiving a transplant, survival rates were 81 percent for those who received the treatment compared to just 31 percent for people who had to stay on dialysis, new research found. "This is a huge unmet problem. There are probably as many as 30,000 people who have been exposed to foreign tissue waiting for a kidney. They're really hard to match," explained study author Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the comprehensive transplant program at ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant, Gamunex, Gammagard, Sandoglobulin, Flebogamma, Octagam, Privigen, Polygam S/D, Carimune, Gammar-P IV, Carimune NF, Venoglobulin-S 10%, Iveegam En, Gamimune, Panglobulin, Gamimune N 5%, Gammaplex, Gammagard S/D, Venoglobulin-S 5%, Gamimune N 10%
Flu Vaccine Appears Safe After Kidney Transplant
Posted 1 May 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 28 – Flu vaccination is safe for kidney transplant patients and lowers their risk of organ loss and death, a new study says. Kidney transplant patients face a high risk of death if they get infected with flu, but some previous studies have suggested that flu vaccines could trigger an immune response that might lead to rejection of the new organ, the study authors noted. In addition, some research has suggested that immune system-suppressing drugs that transplant patients must take may reduce the effectiveness of flu vaccines. In this new study, researchers analyzed Medicare data about flu vaccination and flu cases in 51,730 adults who received a kidney transplant between January 2000 and July 2006 and were followed until October 2006. Of those patients, 9,678 – or 18.7 percent – received a flu vaccination in the first year after their transplant. These patients were ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant, Influenza Prophylaxis
Girls Less Likely Than Boys to Be on Kidney Transplant List
Posted 27 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, April 26 – Girls are much less likely than boys to be placed on a kidney transplant waiting list, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from almost 4,500 dialysis patients younger than 21 years of age at 150 kidney treatment centers in Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States. The results showed that girls were 22 percent less likely than boys to be placed on a waiting list for a new kidney. There were no obvious reasons, such as medical factors or family preference, to account for this gender difference, said the researchers at the University of California Davis School of Medicine. They also found that girls were less likely to have pre-emptive kidney transplants and less likely to have a living-related donor. The study was published online April 20 in the journal Pediatric Transplantation. The sooner a young person with advanced chronic kidney disease receives ... Read more
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Kidney Transplant Patients at Risk of Narrowed Arteries
Posted 14 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, April 14 – Kidney transplant patients whose immune systems produce antibodies that target the new organ can develop accelerated narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the kidney, which may lead to organ rejection. That's the finding of a study by researchers in France who examined kidney biopsies from 99 kidney transplant patients – 40 with antibodies targeting their new kidney and 59 without the antibodies. Significant progression of arteriosclerosis in kidney arteries during the three to 12 months after transplant occurred in the antibody-positive patients, but not in the antibody-negative patients. The rate of artery narrowing, or arteriosclerosis, in the antibody-negative patients was about one-third that seen in the antibody-positive patients. The rate of arteriosclerosis in the antibody-positive patients was much worse than expected and translated into about 28 ... Read more
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Scarring of Transplanted Kidneys Less of a Problem Today
Posted 12 Apr 2011 by Drugs.com
TUESDAY, April 12 – Progressive scar damage to transplanted kidneys may be less common and less severe than reported in previous research, says a new study. The research included 797 patients who received new kidneys between 1998 and 2004 and were followed for at least five years. One year after transplant, 87 percent of the patients had mild or no signs of progressive scar damage on their new kidney. After five years, that decreased slightly to 83 percent, said the Mayo Clinic researchers. The investigators noted that their findings contrast with studies of patients who received kidney transplants in the early 1990s. Those earlier reports found most transplanted kidneys were affected by progressive scarring that eventually resulted in transplant failure. "These results are significant and encouraging for everyone who is concerned about long-term survival for kidney transplant ... Read more
Related support groups: Renal Transplant
Kidney Transplant Patients Urged to Keep Fit to Survive
Posted 7 Mar 2011 by Drugs.com
THURSDAY, March 3 – Exercise may help kidney transplant patients live longer, according to a new study. Dutch researchers assessed the health of 540 kidney transplant recipients between 2001 and 2003 and monitored their physical activity levels until 2007. The investigators found that 260 (48 percent) of the patients did not meet guidelines for minimum requirements of physical activity and 79 (14.6 percent) were completely inactive. During the study period, there were 81 deaths among the patients, including 37 heart-related deaths. The death rate was higher among those who participated in lower levels of physical activity, the study authors found. According to the report, released online March 3 in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, cardiovascular deaths occurred in 11.7 percent of inactive patients, 7.2 ... Read more
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Education Might Help Kidney Recipients Spot Skin Cancer
Posted 21 Feb 2011 by Drugs.com
MONDAY, Feb. 21 – Educating kidney transplant patients about their risk for skin cancer helps increase rates of skin self-examination and follow-up with a dermatologist, researchers have found. "In the United States, an estimated 100,000 living kidney transplant recipients are at risk to develop cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma [malignant tumors occurring in the skin that can spread to other organs]," wrote Dr. June K. Robinson, of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues. "Most kidney transplant recipients with a first squamous cell carcinoma develop multiple skin cancers within five years, and some develop more than 100 skin cancers within a year," they noted. The new study included 75 kidney transplant recipients returning for routine care with their kidney specialist between one and seven years after they had their transplant. The ... Read more
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