Survival after cardiac transplantation has improved steadily over the past decade, with mortality at 1 year falling to as low as 10% in many centers. This improvement in survival is owed in part to better, more specific immunosuppressive agents such as cyclosporine and antilymphocyte an-tibodies.'-3 Also, to a large extent survival has improved because of the early diagnosis of rejection by sur...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of oxalate deposits in native and renal allograft biopsies, and its impact on graft function. METHODS The renal biopsy files at The Johns Hopkins University between 2000 and 2006 were searched to identify biopsies with oxalate deposits, determine the density of oxalate deposits in renal graft biopsies, compare graft histology a...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) was recently introduced as an overarching term covering different phenotypes of chronic allograft dysfunction, including obstructive CLAD (bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome), restrictive CLAD (restrictive allograft syndrome) and graft dysfunction due to causes not related to chronic rejection. In the present review, we will highlight t...

BACKGROUND In the first year after renal allograft transplantation, triple therapy immunosuppression with cyclosporin (CsA), prednisone (P), and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is superior to a triple therapy treatment that includes azathioprine (AZA) instead of MMF. Whether long-term treatment with CsA-P-MMF is better than treatment with CsA-P-AZA is a matter of debate, as 3-year graft survival is...

OBJECTIVE To quantify the incremental survival benefit of the pancreas allograft in simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant recipients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data from the national transplant database from 2000 to 2007 were analyzed. SPK recipients who had functioning allografts to 1-year post transplant (n = 3,304) were compared with those who had failure of the renal (n = 233) o...

BACKGROUND Tacrolimus and ciclosporin might have different effects on intra-renal fibrosis and allograft function in chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). It is difficult to predict the response to calcineurin inhibitor minimization in patients with CAN. METHODS This prospective randomized study compared ciclosporin A (CsA)-to-tacrolimus conversion (group A, target tacrolimus trough level 6-8 ...

In spite of the improved outcome of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLTx), primary graft nonfunction remains one of the life-threatening problems following OLTx. The purpose of this study was to evaluate plasma lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity in multiple organ donors as a predictor of liver allograft viability prior to OLTx. Thirty-nine donors were studied during a 5-mon...

Delayed graft function (DGF) after kidney transplantation is not uncommon, and it is associated with long-term allograft impairment. Our aim was to compare renal perfusion changes measured with noninvasive functional MRI in patients early after kidney transplantation to renal function and allograft histology in biopsy samples. Forty-six patients underwent MRI 4-11 days after transplantation. Co...

BACKGROUND Surgical thrombectomy in the context of acute renal vein thrombosis (RVT) post-transplantation has had limited success, with considerable variation in the surgical techniques used. Unfortunately, it is usually followed by allograft nephrectomy within a few days if rapid allograft recovery does not ensue. We report a case of acute RVT in which nephrectomy was not performed despite a p...

forty renal allograft patients with three months under immunosuppression by cycloserine were examined for their gingival overgrowth and it's correlation with several parameters including the trough levels of blood cyclosporine and it's metabolites measured by the fluorescence polarization immunoassay technique. no correlation was found between the scores of gingival overgrowth and both the age ...