Graft Deterioration (graft + deterioration)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Banff '09 Meeting Report: Antibody Mediated Graft Deterioration and Implementation of Banff Working Groups

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 3 2010
B. Sis
The 10th Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology was held in Banff, Canada from August 9 to 14, 2009. A total of 263 transplant clinicians, pathologists, surgeons, immunologists and researchers discussed several aspects of solid organ transplants with a special focus on antibody mediated graft injury. The willingness of the Banff process to adapt continuously in response to new research and improve potential weaknesses, led to the implementation of six working groups on the following areas: isolated v-lesion, fibrosis scoring, glomerular lesions, molecular pathology, polyomavirus nephropathy and quality assurance. Banff working groups will conduct multicenter trials to evaluate the clinical relevance, practical feasibility and reproducibility of potential changes to the Banff classification. There were also sessions on quality improvement in biopsy reading and utilization of virtual microscopy for maintaining competence in transplant biopsy interpretation. In addition, compelling molecular research data led to the discussion of incorporation of omics-technologies and discovery of new tissue markers with the goal of combining histopathology and molecular parameters within the Banff working classification in the near future. [source]


The role of B cells and alloantibody in the host response to human organ allografts

IMMUNOLOGICAL REVIEWS, Issue 1 2003
Attapong Vongwiwatana
Summary:, Some human organ transplants deteriorate slowly over a period of years, often developing characteristic syndromes: transplant glomerulopathy (TG) in kidneys, bronchiolitis obliterans in lungs, and coronary artery disease in hearts. In the past, we attributed late graft deterioration to ,chronic rejection', a distinct but mysterious immunologic process different from conventional rejection. However, it is likely that much of chronic rejection is explained by conventional T-cell-mediated rejection (TMR), antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), and other insults. Recently, criteria have emerged to now permit us to diagnose AMR in kidney transplants, particularly C4d deposition in peritubular capillaries and circulating antibody against donor human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Some cases with AMR develop TG, although the relationship of TG to AMR is complex. Thus, a specific diagnosis of AMR in kidney can now be made, based on graft damage, C4d deposition, and donor-specific alloantibodies. Criteria for AMR in other organs must be defined. Not all late rejections are AMR; some deteriorating organs probably have smoldering TMR. The diagnosis of late ongoing AMR raises the possibility of treatment to suppress the alloantibody, but efficacy of the available treatments requires further study. [source]


Pregnancy after liver transplantation

LIVER TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 6 2000
Vincent T. Armenti
The first known posttransplantation pregnancy was in 1958 in a renal transplant recipient who had received a kidney from her identical twin sister. The first known posttransplantation pregnancy in a liver transplant recipient was in 1978. Information available from female kidney transplant recipients helped in the decision making involved in the management of this case, as well as those that followed. Over the last 20 years, issues specific to liver transplantation and pregnancy have been identified. Similar to the kidney transplant recipient population, when prepregnancy recipient graft function is stable and adequate, pregnancy appears to be well tolerated. Also similar to kidney transplant recipients, there has been no evidence of a specific malformation pattern among the children, and although prematurity and low birth weight occur, overall newborn outcomes have been favorable. Pregnancy in the setting of recurrent liver disease, such as recurrent hepatitis C, poses a potential problem among liver transplant recipients, as well as the possible adverse effects of immunosuppression on maternal kidney function. Also of significance, peripartum graft deterioration has more severe consequences in this transplant recipient population. Therefore, pregnancy must be considered carefully in this transplant recipient group. Since 1991, the National Transplantation Pregnancy Registry (NTPR) has studied the safety of pregnancy outcomes in solid-organ transplant recipients. The purpose of this review is to catalog studies in the literature, as well as to present current data from the registry with management guidelines. [source]


Pathological and Clinical Characterization of the ,Troubled Transplant': Data from the DeKAF Study

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 2 2010
S. Gourishankar
We are studying two cohorts of kidney transplant recipients, with the goal of defining specific clinicopathologic entities that cause late graft dysfunction: (1) prevalent patients with new onset late graft dysfunction (cross-sectional cohort); and (2) newly transplanted patients (prospective cohort). For the cross-sectional cohort (n = 440), mean time from transplant to biopsy was 7.5 ± 6.1 years. Local pathology diagnoses included CAN (48%), CNI toxicity (30%), and perhaps surprisingly, acute rejection (cellular- or Ab-mediated) (23%). Actuarial rate of death-censored graft loss at 1 year postbiopsy was 17.7%; at 2 years, 29.8%. There was no difference in postbiopsy graft survival for recipients with versus without CAN (p = 0.9). Prospective cohort patients (n = 2427) developing graft dysfunction >3 months posttransplant undergo ,index' biopsy. The rate of index biopsy was 8.8% between 3 and 12 months, and 18.2% by 2 years. Mean time from transplant to index biopsy was 1.0 ± 0.6 years. Local pathology diagnoses included CAN (27%), and acute rejection (39%). Intervention to halt late graft deterioration cannot be developed in the absence of meaningful diagnostic entities. We found CAN in late posttransplant biopsies to be of no prognostic value. The DeKAF study will provide broadly applicable diagnostic information to serve as the basis for future trials. [source]