| AAKP News of the Month: Last Day to Receive Discounted Convention Hotel Rate
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Today, August 4, is the last day to receive the preferred rate of $120 per night at the AAKP Convention hotel, the Hyatt Regency Denver. The 36th Annual AAKP Convention takes place Sept. 3 - 5, in Denver, Colo.
To make reservations at the Convention hotel, please contact the Hyatt Regency at (800) 233-1234 and don't forget to identify yourself as an American Association of Kidney Patients' Convention attendee.
For more information about Convention registration, please visit the AAKP Web site or call (800) 749-AAKP. |
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| 16-Patient Domino Donor Kidney Transplants Sets Record |
 Surgical teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit successfully completed the first eight-way, multihospital, domino kidney transplant. The transplant involved eight donors - three men and five women along with eight organ recipients - three men and five women. The transplants are believed to be the largest series of paired kidney donation procedures in the world.
The transplants took place over the course of several days and the procedure will now become a model for a national paired kidney donation program, which could result in approximately 1,500 more transplants per year. |
| FDA Requires Label Change for Some Transplant Drugs |
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG and other makers of drugs to prevent rejection of transplanted organs will be required to note on their labels that patients are at risk for infections when using the medicines. The label changes are required for Wyeth's Rapamune, Novartis' Neoral and Myfortic, and Roche's Cellcept and Sandimmune.
Organ transplant patients who take these drugs are at increased risk for infections such as BK virus-associated nephropathy. BK virus-associated nephropathy can progress to organ rejection in kidney transplant recipients. Monitoring for this serious risk and early intervention by the health care provider is critical. The FDA is also continuing to review the safety of immunosuppressant drugs used in kidney transplant patients. |
Steroid-Free Immunosuppression for Kidney Transplant Patients?
 A study published in Kidney International questioned whether steroid-free immunosuppression in kidney transplantation should become standard therapy. Steroid-free immunosuppression has been gaining popularity over the past decade, and has been documented by a continuous and steady rise in the number of kidney transplant patients discharged on steroid-free regimens. This type of therapy hopes to alleviate some of the severe side effects of long-term steroid use such as elevated cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Many clinical trials have demonstrated the positive impact of steroid-free immunosuppression, at the expense of a slight increase in the rate of acute rejection, which should also be taken into account. The largest study to date has shown the selective use of steroid-free immunosuppression in kidney transplant patients provides no inferior outcome in patient and organ survival. | |
| Success of Male to Female Kidney Transplants |
 A study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology discovered female recipients from deceased male donors had an increased risk of rejection in the first year following a kidney transplant, but noted the risk did not increased after ten years. Researchers believe proteins found in male donor cells, called H-Y antigens, may affect the short term success of kidney transplants in women.
H-Y antigens, found only in the male chromosome, may cause an immune response in women who receive transplants from deceased male donors. Compared with all other sex combinations, female recipients of male donor kidneys had a 12 percent increased risk for transplant failure at one year. Women who received male donor kidneys also exhibited an increased risk of death in the first year, but no increased risk at ten years.
Researchers noted there are numerous factors that contribute to the success of kidney transplants and transplanting male kidneys into female recipients often produces excellent outcomes. Many important factors should be taken into account when considering transplant options. |
| Black Market Kidney Sting Shocks U.S. |
Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a New York man on charges of organizing the sale of kidneys to patients in the United States. The alleged scheme has been taking place for 10 years and if true, would be the first documented case of organ trafficking in the United States.
Donors were brought to the United States from Israel and underwent surgery to remove a kidney. The FBI did not release which hospitals received these patients, but some hospitals were fooled thinking the donor was acting out of compassion. |
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 Astellas Pharma US, Inc. is proud to sponsor this edition of Kidney Transplant Today. | |
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