Transplantation News

DALLAS — Following kidney transplant, children with ESRD who were on hemodialysis showed greater improvements in quality of life scores than did those who were on PD, according to findings presented at the Annual Dialysis Conference.

Researchers of a published study identified five distinct archetypes of patients with transplant glomerulopathy, each of which were linked to different allograft survival outcomes.

Kidney transplant recipients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C in whom viral replication was controlled had similar overall and graft survival rates as patients without viral hepatitis, according to data published in Journal of Hepatology.

A donor-derived cell-free DNA assay from Natera Inc. detected allograft rejection earlier and more precisely than other currently available tests for patients who have undergone kidney transplant, regardless of donor-recipient relationships, according to published study results.

Between 2008 and 2013, there was a decrease in payments made by Medicare Part D and transplant recipients for tacrolimus and mycophenolate, according to a recently published study. According to researchers, the findings demonstrated that the initiation of generic immunosuppressive medications during this period resulted in cost savings for both Medicare and these patients.

Members of the U.S. House and Senate from New York, Washington state and Arkansas have introduced a bill in Congress to require employers to recognize living organ donors under the Family Medical Leave Act.

Natera Inc. has announced a partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific’s One Lambda brand to co-distribute Natera’s kidney transplant rejection test in the United States, according to a press release from Natera.

Comparable outcomes were seen with A2 to B vs. B to B kidney transplants after 3 years of experience under a new kidney allocation system used at a single center, according to recently published results. The new allocation system may improve access to kidney transplants for African Americans, who are the majority of A2 kidney recipients at this center.

Although both frail and non-frail patients experienced cognitive improvement 3 months following kidney transplant, cognitive function remained stable for non-frail patients and declined among frail patients at 1 year to 4 years post-transplant, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The American Society of Transplant Surgeons has qualified Loyola Medicine to offer a two-year fellowship in liver and kidney transplant surgery, with the first fellowship to begin in July 2020.