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Kidney Transplant Today
In This Issue:
AAKP National Convention
AAKP & RPA Congressional Hill Visits
Student Gives Stranger a Kidney
Cost-Effective Immune Suppressant Drugs
NKF Suspends U.S. Transplant Games in 2012
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Convention registration brochure

You're invited to attend the 38th Annual AAKP National Convention! The Convention takes place August 26-28, 2011, in Little Rock, AR. The event kicks off with a public policy forum at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center, featuring health care leaders, policy makers and patients.

 

After the public policy forum, the official AAKP Convention will begin at the Peabody Little Rock hotel. Building on the success of last year's program, AAKP is once again offering three educational tracks:

  • Chronic Kidney Disease
  • End-Stage Renal Disease
  • Transplantation

The official Convention Registration Brochure is now available. Visit the AAKP website, www.aakp.org, to download the brochure or call 1-800-749-2257 to register over the phone.

 

 June 2011 
masthead
AAKP Team-Up with RPA to Conduct Congressional Hill Visits

capitol hillOn Monday, June 6, 2011, 50 kidney disease patients and renal physicians joined forces to raise awareness about access to quality care to Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill. Patients vounteers with AAKP partnered with physicians with the Renal Physician Association (RPA) and met with several Congressional staff members from their home states to promote agenda items important to the safety and well-being of kidney patients.

 

During the Congressional visits, participants discussed providing patients access to quality care, legislation extending Medicare coverage of immunosuppressant drugs for kidney transplant recipients and legislation allowing Medicare to cover more frequentdialysis treatments.

Student Gives Stranger a Kidney

Student kidney donorOn Tuesdau, May 31, Rachel Garneau made a dream come true. The 20-year old college junior donated her left kidney to a stranger. Typically, this kind of donation is made to save the life of a loved one - a brother or sister, suffering from kidney failure. But Garneau's four siblings are fine. She doesn't know anyone who needs a kidney. She just wanted to donate hers.

 

"I honestly don't remember what got me into this at all," she said. "I first starting thinking about this three years ago, when I was 17. I've never known anybody who had kidney problems, I never knew anybody who had serious medical issues. One day, I started thinking about it, doing the research ... a few hours later, I went downstairs I told my parents I wanted to donate my kidney." 

 

Click here to read the rest of her story.

Study Identifies Cost-effective Immune Suppressant Drugs for Transplants
In the first head-to-head comparison of the three most common drugs used at the time of a kidney transplant to prevent organ rejection, researchers found that the least expensive drug is as safe and effective as the other two. This is according to a study released by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and appears in the May 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The researchers compared the drugs basilimab, antithymocyte globulin and alemtuzmab to definitively answer which of the three would be the most appropriate to prescribe to prevent rejection during the first six to 12 months following transplant surgery, when rejection is most likely.

The researchers found that alemtuzumab - a drug originally approved for lymphoma treatment, which costs around $2,000 - worked better than or as well as either basiliximab or antithymocyte globulin, which cost about $4,000 and $10,000 respectively.
NKF Suspends U.S. Transplant Games in 2012 

The National Kidney Foundation will not be hosting the U.S. Transplant Games in 2012.

 

"For 20 years," says NKF CEO John Davis, "the NKF U.S. Transplant Games have educated the public about the life-saving power of organ donation and dramatically demonstrated that those with transplants can and do lead normal and active lives. But the Games represent a multi-million dollar expense for the foundation," he explains, "that also requires a significant commitment of staff resources."

 

"Now," Davis says, "when most Americans view transplantation as almost routine surgery that restores life, we will re-examine the format and financial structure of the Games, to achieve maximum impact and to ensure sustainability going forward. As always, we will work with a range of constituents and supporters to accomplish this."

 

For more information, click here

 

Girls Less Likely than Boys to be Placed on Kidney Transplant Wait List

Girls HealthA study published online in the journal Pediatric Transplantation has found that among children and young adults under 21 years of age starting dialysis, girls were 22 percent less likely than boys to be placed on the waiting list for a new organ.

 

The study included 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.

 

Click here for more information.