http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. By the time 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan finally got a lung transplant last week, she'd been waiting for months, and her parents had sued to give her a better chance at surgery. Her cystic fibrosis was threatening her life, and her case spurred a debate in the U.S. on how to allocate scarce donor organs for transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-patients-lab-grown-body.html Health Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:20:01 EST news290710503 On April 18th JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) will publish a new video article by Dr. Paul A Iaizzo demonstrating the anatomical reconstruction of an active human heart. The research uses contrast-computed tomography (CT) to allow in-depth 3-D computer modeling of hearts that can be used for prolonged archiving. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-scientists-scan-human-heart-digital.html Medical research Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:51:41 EST news285497494 Bioengineered rat kidneys developed by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators successfully produced urine both in a laboratory apparatus and after being transplanted into living animals. In their report, receiving advance online publication in Nature Medicine, the research team describes building functional replacement kidneys on the structure of donor organs from which living cells had been stripped, an approach previously used to create bioartificial hearts, lungs and livers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-implantable-bioengineered-rat-kidney-video.html Medical research Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:00:17 EST news285140804 Patients faced with the diagnosis of a life-threatening liver disease have to consider the seriousness of having a liver transplant, which can be a definitive cure for many acquired and genetic liver diseases. Among the main considerations are the anxiety of waiting for a donor organ, the risks associated with the transplant operation, and the chance that the transplant procedure will not achieve the desired result. There is also the six-figure cost of the procedure and accompanying patient care, all of which may not be completely covered by health insurance. But, according to a study appearing in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), found that liver transplants are worth the risk for people who have genetic liver conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-liver-transplantation-patients-genetic-conditions.html Surgery Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:01:52 EST news284392900 African-Americans and individuals without private health insurance are less likely than others to receive a kidney transplant before requiring dialysis, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that efforts are needed to ensure the equitable distribution of donor kidneys and the timing of transplantation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-disparities-kidney-transplant.html Other Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:00:05 EST news278869706 Hearts previously rejected due to donors' age or other risk factors can now be declared viable for transplantation using pharmacological stress echo, according to research presented at EUROECHO and other Imaging Modalities 2012. The study1 was presented by Dr Tonino Bombardini from Pisa, Italy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-hearts-viable-transplantation-stress-echo.html Cardiology Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:45:13 EST news273905106 A certain type of immune cell—the regulatory T cell, or Treg for short—is in charge of putting on the brakes on the immune response. In a way, this cell type might be considered the immune system's traffic cops. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-traffic-cops-immune-molecule-ikbns.html Immunology Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:11:42 EST news273413486 Belatacept (trade name Nulojix) has been approved since June 2011 to prevent a rejection reaction of the body to the donor organ (transplant) in adults who have received a kidney transplant. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has examined the added benefit of the drug pursuant to the "Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products" (AMNOG). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-belatacept-kidney-transplant-minor-added.html Medications Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:17:20 EST news271689428 A new technique involving the use of an artificial scaffold into which a patient's own stem cells are inserted, turning it into a fully functional organ, could offer a potential solution to the donor shortage crisis, according to the second paper in this week's Lancet Series on stem cells. This pioneering approach to regenerating and transplanting organs requires no human donors, has no problems with rejection, and has no need for immunosuppressive drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-potential-solution-donor-shortage.html Medical research Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:30:04 EST news250445974 People who have received a donor organ need lifelong immunosuppressant drugs to keep their immune system from attacking the foreign tissue. However, with a suppressed immune system, many infectious agents turn into a threat. Infections such as with human cytomegalovirus and a certain type of human polyomavirus frequently cause complications in transplant recipients. For these patients it would therefore be particularly beneficial to have substances that suppress the immune system and exert an antiviral activity at the same time – thus killing two birds with one stone. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-stress-cells-hepatitis-viruses.html Medical research Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:14:05 EST news248361238 Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support in awake, non-intubated patients may be an effective strategy for bridging patients to lung transplantation, according to a new study from Germany. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-extracorporeal-membrane-oxygenation-bridge-lung.html Other Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:10:01 EST news246254473 Research published today in the British Journal of Anaesthesia suggests that organ donation rates in the UK could be increased if the current issues affecting declined consent are improved. At present, only 30% of the UK population are registered on the NHS Organ Donor Register (ODR). From 2003 to 2005, the overall consent rate for donation after brain death (DBD) was 59%. This figure remains largely unchanged with a consent rate of 63% for DBD in 2007-2009. The low consent rate for organ donation in the UK is the largest factor limiting actual organ donor. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-family-consent-donation.html Other Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:31:05 EST news243750650 New research reveals that liver transplantation candidates want to be involved in decisions regarding quality of the donor organ, and many are reluctant to accept organs with a higher risk of failure. In fact, more than 42% of patients would choose to remain on the waiting list rather than accept a "lower quality" liver according to the study appearing in the December issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-transplant-candidates-quality-livers.html Other Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:39:48 EST news241961933 Transplant surgeons at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center recently performed their first simultaneous, dual living donor organ transplant on a single recipient. The recipient, a 60-year-old man from the Hazleton area, received a kidney from his wife and a section of his youngest son’s liver in a complicated surgery that lasted nearly 19 hours. Simultaneous transplants of multiple organs from multiple living donors to a single recipient are exceedingly rare in the United States; since 1987, the procedure has been performed with a liver and kidney coming from different living donors just 10 other times. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-medical-center-rare-donor-transplant.html Other Tue, 03 May 2011 09:10:04 EST news223629795