Bennett  

Transplantation: Medical and Immunosuppressive Management
(William Bennett, MD. ASN Board Review, 2006). What is the basis for the standard immunosuppression protocols in use currently? When do we use lymphocyte depleting agents or anti-IL2 monoclonal antibodies? How do we assess immunologic and non-immunologic risk and tailor immunosuppression accordingly? Which is better, cyclosporin or tacrolimus, and how is each drug best monitored? What is the basis for chronic allograft nephropathy, and how can we prevent and treat this? What is the state of knowledge regarding steroid avoidance or reduction regiments? When is it appropriate to reduce or eliminate calcineurin inhibitors from the mix? What are indications for expanded criteria donor kidneys? What are the transplant complications relating to osteoporosis, uric acid, and electrolyte disorders? How do we prevent or lower the risk for anemia and cancer? How do we approach fever in the transplant recipient? How do we treat polyomavirus nephropathy? What are the drug interactions among immunosuppressive medications?
(more...)



Murphy  

Rigatto  

Mannon  

Transplantation: Key Issues for the General Nephrologist     
Rigatto: How does cardiovascular disease manifest in transplant patients and how should we manage it? What are the BP targets, lipid, and HbA1c goals, and indications for beta-blockers, ASA, and statins? What did the ALERT trial show re fluvastatin? What is the impact of pre-emptive transplantation on CVD? Murphy: What is the epidemiology of chronic allograft nephropathy? What are the management options in terms of prevention protocols? With calcineurin withdrawal protocols, what are results using MMF or alternatively, sirolimus? What are the data using belatacept? Campath (alemtuzumab)? Mannon: What are our choices for maintenance immunosuppression agents? Induction agents? What are some of the standard regimens? What are mechanisms of actions of the major drug classes? What are common drug interactions? Side effects? Toxicities? What approaches can we use to achieve calcineurin-free immunosuppression? Steroid-free immunosuppresssion? What are the newer agents on the horizon? (2.0 CME credits)
(more...)

key Try Dr. Abbott's MATCHING quiz: Transplant Med Side Effects. This two-part matching quiz covers common side effects of drugs used to prevent allograft rejection. Make sure you click on the link at the bottom of the first page to also take Part Two.

Updated: July 02, 2008 (J02)
J02 Secret of herpesvirus latency discovered in strands of microRNA.
J30 Cancer cure strategy in mice to be tested in humans: transfusion of allogeneic cancer-killing leukocytes.
J28 FDA/Roche: Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) warnings added to mycophenolate labeling.
J26 Two siRNA in the Phase I/II pipeline for kidney disease, one for delayed graft function, the other for AKI
J25 Site indentified at which microRNAs may down-regulate immune response.
J23 Rapamycin may impact retardation in tuberous sclerosis and might be useful in treating autism.
J16 British Medical Journal hosts interchange of views on appropriateness of paying live organ donors.
J16 Do patients with combined liver/kidney transplants really need the kidney portion?
J12 Patch-based vaccine effective against traveler's diarrhea.
J10 Study suggests existence of more than one stem cell population in a single organ (intestinal tract)
J10 Etanercept plus exenatide increases efficacy of islet cell transplants over the standard Edmonton protocol.
J05 FDA: More on the ongoing review of TNF-blockers and cancer risk.
J03 Salmonella outbreak in 9 states linked to raw tomatoes.
J02 Genetically engineered regulatory T-cells used to control inflammatory bowel disease in mice.
M26 2008 American Transplant Congress to meet in Toronto starting May 31. Abstracts at this link.
Industry Advances Emphasis
archive
ASTS 7th Annual Winter Symposium ASTS; 01-07
Transplantation: Medical and Immunosuppressive Management ASN Board Review 2006
Chronic Allograft Nephropathy: The Tough Questions Remain (Halloran, Colvin, Meier-Kriesche, Becker, Chapman) AST 2006
How We Reject a Graft: The Balance Between Acceptance and Rejection (Rothstein, Sayegh, Halloran, Bromberg, Najafian, Valujskikh, Murphy) AST Pre-Meeting Immunobiology Symposium 2006
Post-Transplant Infections: Updating the General Nephrologist (Rubin, Pescovitz, Ramos) ASN Renal Week 2005
Transplantation: Key Issues for the General Nephrologist (Murphy, Rigatto, Mannon) ASN Renal Week 2005
State-of-the-Art Lecture : Tipping the Immune Balance Toward Tolerance (Strom) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
The Spectrum of Sensitization Before and After Transplantation: Management Issues (Tinckam, Akalin, Watschinger, Jordan) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
The High Risk Transplant Patient (Kiberd, Wali, Adey, Chapman, Chandraker) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
State-of-the-Art Lecture : Tipping the Immune Balance Toward Tolerance (Strom) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
Managing the Transplant Patient: What the General Nephrologist Needs to Know (Helderman, Blumberg, Kasiske, Abbott) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
New Immunosuppressive Agents in Renal Transplantation (Steinberg, Grinyo, Knechtle) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
Highlights from the 2005 American Transplant Congress: Renal Transplantation (Gallon, Vanrenterghem, Mannon) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
Transplantation: What the General Nephrologist Must Know (Parts 1 and 2) (Norman, Tinckam, Danovitch, Chandraker, Nast, Davis; Kasiske, Pavlakis, Brennan, Josephson, Davis) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
Transplantation: What the General Nephrologist Must Know (Parts 3 and 4) (Heeger, Hricik, Danovitch, Chapman, Bunnapradist, Gabardi; Akalin, Chandraker, Martin, Cohen, Thomas) ASN Renal Week 2005 (audiofiles)
Donor / Recipient Evaluation (Davis) ASN 2004
B Cell and the Humoral Alloimmune Response (Denton) ASN 2004
Chronic Allograft Nephropathy and Recurrent Disease (Nankivell) ASN 2004
Immunosuppression: Induction and Maintenance (Vincenti) ASN 2004
Infectious Diseases After Immunosuppression in the Non-Transplant Kidney Patient Population (Brennan) ASN 2004
New Infectious Timeline (Davis) ASN 2004
Infections and Renal Complications of Immunosuppression: An Update (Roth) ASN 2004
CMV infection and management (Brennan) ASN Renal Week
Polyoma virus (Hirsch) ASN Renal Week
New viral infection: HHV-6, west nile virus (Limaye) ASN Renal Week
Hepatitis and the renal transplant recipient (Pereira) ASN Renal Week
Evaluation and management of the hepatitis C virus infected pretransplant candidate (Roth) ASN Renal Week
Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (Weir) ASN Renal Week

Trends in organ donation and transplantation in the United States, 1997-2006 Am J Transplant (Apr 2008)
Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis: overtreated but underrated? J Am Soc Nephrol (Apr 2008)
Transplant glomerulopathy Am J Transplant (Mar 2008)
A randomized, multicenter study of steroid avoidance, early steroid withdrawal or standard steroid therapy in kidney transplant recipients Am J Transplant (Feb 2008)
Alemtuzumab (Campath-1H) in kidney transplantation Am J Transplant (Jan 2008)
Rapid remission of steroid and mycophenolate mofetil-resistant minimal change nephrotic syndrome after rituximab therapy Nephrol Dial Transplant (Jan 2008)
Conditional gene expression: a new tool for the transplantologist Am J Transplant 04-07
Report of the First World Transplant Congress CJASN 03-07
Report of the First World Transplant Congress (Cravdei et al) CJASN (03-2007)
The interleukin-12 family: new players in transplantation immunity? (Goriely, Goldman) Am J Transplant (02-2007)
The interleukin-12 family: new players in transplantation immunity? Am J Transplant 02-07
Pathogenesis and prevention of bone loss in patients who have kidney disease and receive long-term immunosuppression JASN (01-2007)
Gal knockout and beyond (Zhong) Am J Transplant (01-2007)
Gal knockout and beyond (Zhong) Am J Transplant 01-07
Recurrent glomerulonephritis after kidney transplantation (Choy, Chan, Lai) Am J Transplant 11-06
Emerging issues in hepatitis C virus-positive liver and kidney transplant recipients (Bloom and Lake). Am J Transplant 10-06
Developments in clinical islet, liver thoracic, kidney and pancreas transplantation in the last 5 years (Feng et al) Am J Transplant 07-06
TRANSPLANT LINKS
Am Soc Transplantation
Am Soc Transplant Surgeons
NAPRTCS
Renal Pathology Society
Transweb
UNOS
U.S. Transplant Reports
NKF Transplantation
CTS: List of links
HDCN Topic Pages (KEY)
Transplantation
Cyclosporine and the kidney
Hypertension in Tx Patients
CLINICAL TRIALS
Clinical Trials.gov
CONGRESSES, MEETINGS
UNOS Calendar
AST Meeting Archives
Upcoming AST meetings  (2007-2009)
INDUSTRY SPONSORED
Tx Square (Novartis)
ROTRF (Roche)
Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Dr. Kevin C. Abbott, LTC, MC
Director, Dialysis, Nephrology Service
Chief, Research and Development, Telemedicine, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC