OBJECTIVE To investigate changes in pediatric kidney transplant outcomes over time and potential variations in these changes between the early and late posttransplant periods and across subgroups based on recipient, donor, and transplant characteristics. METHODS Using multiple logistic regression and multivariable Cox models, graft and patient outcomes were analyzed in 17,446 pediatric kidney...

BACKGROUND Transplantation of islets of Langerhans (islets) is a promising technique for treating insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type I). One unsolved issue is the early graft loss due to inflammatory reactions triggered by blood coagulation and complement activation that occurs immediately after transplantation into the liver through the portal vein. Several proposed approaches for impro...

BACKGROUND Renal transplantation is now considered the best treatment for end-stage renal failure patients. In view of the worldwide growing waiting list, extending donor age is one of the strategies implemented to make more kidneys available for transplantation. METHODS From October 1983 to February 2000, 324 renal transplantations were performed at Geneva University Hospital, 68 of which we...

Third renal transplants are historically associated with a poor prognosis. An analysis was undertaken to assess long-term outcomes of third grafts and identify variables associated with long-term graft survival. Fifty-six third grafts performed between 1974 and 2005 were compared to control groups of 1965 primary and 301 second grafts performed during the same period. Kaplan-Meier analysis show...

BACKGROUND It is an unresolved issue why some kidney transplant recipients with pretransplant donor-specific HLA antibodies (DSA) show a high transplant failure rate, whereas in other patients DSA do not harm the graft. We investigated whether help from preactivated T-cells might be necessary for DSA to exert a deleterious effect. METHODS The impact of pretransplant DSA and immune activation ...

BACKGROUND HLA Matchmaker is a computer algorithm developed to evaluate donor/receptor compatibility comparing sequences of polymorphic aminoacids (eplets) present in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules. The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of HLA Matchmaker for patient and graft survival, graft survival free of rejection, and the presence of anti HLA antibodies. MET...

The kidney graft survival rate at the Belfast City Hospital has consistently exceeded 80% at two and three years since the transplant programme began in 1968. This graft survival rate compares very favourably with that of other centres and should mean a difference in graft survival for paired kidneys when one kidney is used for a Northern Ireland recipient and the other for a recipient 'outside...

This paper presents the development of a Bayesian belief network classifier for prediction of graft status and survival period in renal transplantation using the patient profile information prior to the transplantation. The objective was to explore feasibility of developing a decision making tool for identifying the most suitable recipient among the candidate pool members. The dataset was compi...

OBJECTIVE To study the influence of nonimmunologic factors on the outcome of extended criteria deceased donor (DD) kidney transplants. METHOD This is a retrospective study of DD transplantation carried out from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2007, to investigate the impact on graft survival and function of donor renal function at retrieval, cold ischemia time (CIT), delayed graft function (D...

Patients with a history of diabetes mellitus (DM) have worse survival than those without DM after liver transplantation. However, the effect of liver grafts from DM donors on the post-transplantation survival of recipients is unclear. Using the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients database (2004-2008), 25,413 patients were assessed. Among them, 2,469 recipients received grafts from dono...