The Impact of Pre-donation Weight Loss on Post-donation Outcome. Dr. Marsden from Cardiff transplant unit, University of Wales, shared data on donor obesity from their living donor program during an abstract presentation at the ATC. Programs involved in clearing living kidney donors often have weight cutoffs for living kidney donors but the data on what […]
Eculizumab Therapy for Chronic Antibody Mediated Rejection Chronic antibody mediated rejection (AMR) is currently a major problem in kidney transplantation. Chronic AMR results in poor graft survival and there are no effective therapies. To date the best data on treatment exists with rituximab and IVIg, although still limited. Eculizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against C5, […]
ATC abstract presentation: Alemtuzumab Induction and Belatacept-Based Immunosuppression in Renal Transplant Recipients: Peripheral Dynamics of T and B cell Populations with Potential Regulatory Signatures. In Monday’s session on Novel immunosuppressive agents, Dr. Xu of Emory University, presented his center’s data on using a combination of belatacept with sirolimus after alemtuzumab induction in kidney transplant recipients. […]
The American Transplant Congress (ATC) is the joint annual meeting of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) and the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and is the must attend meeting for all transplant specialists. The ATC is unique in that the meeting incorporates both medical doctors and surgeons in almost all specialties, including nephrology, […]
Many lupus trials do not include patients with advanced kidney injury. The Aspreva Lupus Management Trial (ALMS) trial was the largest trial to date in lupus nephritis treatment. A recent article in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases explores a sub-group of patients with poor kidney function in the ALMS trial. Dr. Michael Walsh (MW), […]
Drug safety is a critical concern in medicine. A recent trend is the late discovery of drug complications after the drug’s approval. A recent study published in the May issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases looks at a novel method for detecting specific drug complications after a drug is released. Lead author Dr. […]
Drs. D’Agati and Mengel provide an excellent review on the history and evolution of kidney pathology. The article clearly highlights how the important contributions of nephropathologists have improved our understanding of kidney diseases and recognizes the landmark contributions of many of the most important figures in this field. Being a renal pathologist, the review reassured […]
In a the December 2012 issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, Aiyer et al published an interesting case of spurious hyperphosphatemia in a patient with lymphoma. Take our nephrology jumble-bumble to test your knowledge on spurious chemistry results! Post and cartoon by Dr. Ritu Soni, Nephrology Fellow at University of Pittsburgh. To see […]
Nephropathology: A Nephrologist’s Perspective
Invited commentary by Dr. Vivekanand Jha D’Agati and Mengel provide a fascinating account of the history of kidney pathology over last 60 years. As they note, it is impossible to imagine nephrology as it exists today without acknowledging the major, even pivotal, contributions of pathologists. Except structural abnormalities that can be detected by imaging, the […]