Abstract
Background and Aims
Early graft failure (EGL) is a devastating complication of kidney transplantation. Patients with EGL have an increased risk of mortality of up to twelve times compared to ...patients who received grafts that survive beyond 30 days. Moreover, they may have become sensitized to antigens from the failed graft and that human leukocyte antigen antibodies (anti-HLA), identified on single antigen bead assays, may not be reliable until several weeks after transplantation. Thus, if rapid re-transplantation occurs, there is no certainty regarding the recipient's immunological status. Hence, there could be an increased immunological risk with the consequent disturbance of the new graft's survival.
Method
We performed a retrospective single-center observational study in re-transplanted patients with EGL (defined as graft loss before 30 days from transplant) between January 1977 and November 2019 from our center to analyze the outcomes of rapid re-transplantation (occurred within 30 days of EGL) vs late re-transplantation (occurred beyond those 30 days).
Results: T
here were 82 re-transplants after EGL. The median overall patient survival after re-transplantation was 32 years. Eight patients died within the first year. Among the mortality causes, there were four septic shocks, one cardiogenic shock, one massive pulmonary thromboembolism, one myocardial infarction, and one unknown cause. When analyzed for periods, death censored graft survival was 89% at one and five years after re-transplantation. One graft was lost at eight days due to antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), while there was one death with a functioning graft three months after re-transplantation secondary to a pulmonary embolism. Seventy-three late re-transplants occurred. When analyzed for periods, death censored graft survival was 81% and 69% at one and five years after re-transplantation, respectively. The median patient survival after late re-transplantation was 32 years. There were fewer deaths after rapid re-transplantation than late re-transplantation, but given the small number of cases in the former, this difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.3). There was no association between the timing of re-transplantation and an increased risk of graft failure (HR 0.30 0.04 – 2.2). While four rapid re-transplants did not share any incompatibilities between donors, four did share at least one HLA type I incompatibility, and one shared an incompatibility of HLA class I and class II. There were no T-cell mediated rejections (TCMR), and there was only one AMR in the rapid rapid re-transplantation group, whereas there were six TCMRs and fifteen AMRs in the late re-transplantation group (p = 0.03 and p = 0.4, respectively).
Conclusion
Rapid re-transplantation appears to be safe and does not entail increased rejection risk, nor it diminishes long-term graft survival when compared to late re-transplantation.
Information about the impact of diabetic neuropathy (DN) on outcomes after pancreas transplantation (PT) is scarce. We assessed the independent relationship between DN markers with both graft ...survival and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) after transplantation.
A cohort study in individuals with type 1 diabetes and end-stage kidney disease who underwent PT between 1999 and 2015 was conducted. DN was assessed with vibration perception thresholds (VPTs) and orthostatic hypotension (pre-PT and 6 mo, 2-3, 5-6, and 8-10 y after transplantation). Pretransplantation and posttransplantation DN markers were related with graft failure/dysfunction and incident CVD during follow-up.
We included 187 participants (70% men, age 39.9 ± 7.1 y, diabetes duration 27.1 y), with a median follow-up of 11.3 y. Abnormal VPTs (≥25 V) were observed in 53%. After transplantation, VPTs improved (22.4 ± 8.4 pretransplant versus 16.1 ± 6.1 V at 8-10 y post-PT; P < 0.001); additionally, the prevalence of abnormal VPTs decreased (53% pretransplant versus 24.4% at 8-10 y; P < 0.001). After adjusting for age, sex, diabetes duration, blood pressure, body mass index, and previous CVD, pretransplant VPTs ≥25 V were independently associated with pancreas graft failure/dysfunction (hazard ratio HR, 2.01 1.01-4.00) and incident CVD (HR, 2.57 1.17-5.64). Furthermore, persistent abnormal VPTs after 6 mo posttransplantation were associated with the worst outcomes (HR, 2.80 1.25-6.23 and HR, 3.19 1.14-8.96, for graft failure/dysfunction and incident CVD, respectively).
In individuals with type 1 diabetes and end-stage kidney disease, PT was associated with an improvement of VPTs. This simple and widely available DN study was independently associated with pancreas graft function and CVD posttransplantation.
Abstract
Aims
Since December 2015, the European/International Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) Registry enrolled 1022 patients from 22 countries. We present their characteristics according to disease ...subtype, age and gender, as well as predictors of widespread disease, aneurysms and dissections.
Methods and results
All patients diagnosed with FMD (string-of-beads or focal stenosis in at least one vascular bed) based on computed tomography angiography, magnetic resonance angiography, and/or catheter-based angiography were eligible. Patients were predominantly women (82%) and Caucasians (88%). Age at diagnosis was 46 ± 16 years (12% ≥65 years old), 86% were hypertensive, 72% had multifocal, and 57% multivessel FMD. Compared to patients with multifocal FMD, patients with focal FMD were younger, more often men, had less often multivessel FMD but more revascularizations. Compared to women with FMD, men were younger, had more often focal FMD and arterial dissections. Compared to younger patients with FMD, patients ≥65 years old had more often multifocal FMD, lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and more atherosclerotic lesions. Independent predictors of multivessel FMD were age at FMD diagnosis, stroke, multifocal subtype, presence of aneurysm or dissection, and family history of FMD. Predictors of aneurysms were multivessel and multifocal FMD. Predictors of dissections were age at FMD diagnosis, male gender, stroke, and multivessel FMD.
Conclusions
The European/International FMD Registry allowed large-scale characterization of distinct profiles of patients with FMD and, more importantly, identification of a unique set of independent predictors of widespread disease, aneurysms and dissections, paving the way for targeted screening, management, and follow-up of FMD.
Pancreas graft status in simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant (SPKTx) is currently assessed by nonspecific biochemical markers, typically amylase or lipase. Identifying a noninvasive biomarker ...with good sensitivity in detecting early pancreas graft rejection could improve SPKTx management.
Here, we developed a pilot study to explore donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) performance in predicting biopsy-proven acute rejection (P-BPAR) of the pancreas graft in a cohort of 36 SPKTx recipients with biopsy-matched plasma samples. dd-cfDNA was measured using the Prospera test (Natera, Inc.) and reported both as a fraction of the total cfDNA (fraction; %) and as concentration in the recipient's plasma (quantity; copies/mL).
In the absence of P-BPAR, dd-cfDNA was significantly higher in samples collected within the first 45 d after SPKTx compared with those measured afterward (median, 1.00% versus 0.30%; median, 128.2 versus 35.3 cp/mL, respectively with both; P = 0.001). In samples obtained beyond day 45, P-BPAR samples presented a significantly higher dd-cfDNA fraction (0.83 versus 0.30%; P = 0.006) and quantity (81.3 versus 53.3 cp/mL; P = 0.001) than stable samples. Incorporating dd-cfDNA quantity along with dd-cfDNA fraction outperformed dd-cfDNA fraction alone to detect active rejection. Notably, when using a quantity cutoff of 70 cp/mL, dd-cfDNA detected P-BPAR with a sensitivity of 85.7% and a specificity of 93.7%, which was more accurate than current biomarkers (area under curve of 0.89 for dd-cfDNA (cp/ml) compared with 0.74 of lipase and 0.46 for amylase).
dd-cfDNA measurement through a simple noninvasive blood test could be incorporated into clinical practice to help inform graft management in SPKTx patients.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Seroconversion after a two-dose course of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in kidney transplant recipients ranges between 30% and 50% in different series. We previously ...demonstrated that a substantial proportion of patients (35%) without a humoral response, develop a cellular response after the second dose assessed by the ELISpot technique. We aim to study the evolution of both humoral and cellular responses in the same cohort before and 1 month after the administration of the third dose of 100 mcg of mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine.
METHOD
Final population included 129 KTRs studied at four time-points: at baseline before the first dose, after the second dose (median 42 days) and before (203 days) and after (232 days) the third dose. At all the time-points, IgG and IgM were assessed as well as N- and S-protein specific ELISpot. The main outcome was seroconversion after the third dose.
RESULTS
After the second dose, 26.7% of naïve cases experienced seroconversion. Before the third dose and in the absence of clinically evident COVID-19, this percentage increased to 61.9%. After the third dose, seroconversion was observed in 80.0% of patients. S-ELISpot positivity after the second dose was significantly associated with final seroconversion OR (95% CI) 3.14 (1.10–8.96); P = .032, while transplantation < 1 year and previous kidney transplant were negatively associated with OR (95% CI) 0.23 (0.07–0.80); P = .021 and OR (95% CI) 0.22 (0.06–0.78); P = .020, respectively). IgG after third dose were significantly higher (P < .001) in patients who maintained S-ELISpot positivity throughout the study (34.3%) and were correlated with S-spots after the second dose (r = 0.344, P < .001).
CONCLUSION
A substantial proportion of KTRs vaccinated with mRNA-1273 develops a late seroconversion after two doses and only a fifth remained seronegative after a third. Cellular immunity seems to play a major role in the development of a final strong humoral response.
Ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) upon transplantation is one of the most impactful events that the kidney graft suffers during its life. Its clinical manifestation in the recipient, delayed graft ...function (DGF), has serious prognostic consequences. However, the different definitions of DGF are subject to physicians' choices and centers' policies, and a more objective tool to quantify IRI is needed. Here, we propose the use of donor-derived cell-free DNA (ddcfDNA) for this scope.
ddcfDNA was assessed in 61 kidney transplant recipients of either living or deceased donors at 24 h, and 7, 14 and 30 days after transplantation using the AlloSeq cfDNA Kit (CareDx, San Francisco, CA, USA). Patients were followed-up for 6 months and 7-year graft survival was estimated through the complete and functional iBox tool.
Twenty-four-hour ddcfDNA was associated with functional DGF 7.20% (2.35%-15.50%) in patients with functional DGF versus 2.70% (1.55%-4.05%) in patients without it, P = .023 and 6-month estimated glomerular filtration rate (r = -0.311, P = .023). At Day 7 after transplantation, ddcfDNA was associated with dialysis duration in DGF patients (r = 0.612, P = .005) and worse 7-year iBox-estimated graft survival probability (β -0.42, P = .001) at multivariable analysis. Patients with early normalization of ddcfDNA (<0.5% at 1 week) had improved functional iBox-estimated probability of graft survival (79.5 ± 16.8%) in comparison with patients with 7-day ddcfDNA ≥0.5% (67.7 ± 24.1%) (P = .047).
ddcfDNA early kinetics after transplantation reflect recovery from IRI and are associated with short-, medium- and long-term graft outcome. This may provide a more objective estimate of IRI severity in comparison with the clinical-based definitions of DGF.
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