Organ Donation News and Research

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Scientists discover specific immune system T cells that trigger destruction of type 1 diabetes

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have proven - for the first time in human tissues -- the specific immune system T cells which trigger the destruction of type 1 diabetes in the pancreas. The finding is an important advance that verifies in humans several important disease characteristics shown in mouse studies and provides a key focal point for interrupting the disease process.

13 Jan 2012

Pennsylvania Department of Health to provide free influenza and Tdap vaccines

The Department of Health will offer free influenza and Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis (Tdap) vaccines at the 2012 Pennsylvania Farm Show, Jan. 9-13, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

7 Jan 2012

Children with biliary atresia better tolerate maternal liver grafts

Children with a rare, life-threatening disease that is the most common cause of neonatal liver failure - biliary atresia - better tolerate liver transplants from their mothers than from their fathers, according to a UCSF-led study.

4 Jan 2012

Donate Life to honor 10 deceased Hispanic organ and tissue donors with floragraphs

Almost 2,000 Hispanics donate organs every year in the United States, saving countless lives in the process, a contribution that will be recognized by the Donate Life float taking part in the 123rd Rose Parade in Pasadena. Five Hispanic men have been chosen to ride on the float as recognition for their gift of life to others through living donation or for the role they played in a deceased loved one's donation.

26 Dec 2011

Declined consent affects organ donation rates

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%.

23 Dec 2011

Roundup: Ohio lawmakers consider abortion bill; Aetna sues Mich. Blues

An Ohio lawmaker on Wednesday touted the importance of the fetal heartbeat as an indicator of life as he urged a legislative panel to support a bill that would impose the nation's most stringent abortion limit. The measure would outlaw abortions at the first detectable fetal heartbeat. That's sometimes as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

9 Dec 2011

Better medical care for kidney failure in Germany

In complex cases of kidney failure, medical care in Germany evidently operates better than in the US. Scientists at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin were able to show that German patients who have an increased risk of rejection reactions due to prior immunization have better survival rates than people with diseases of similar severity in the US.

3 Dec 2011

Wales may adopt new organ donation laws

New legislation in Wales proposes the modification of current organ donation rules. It could mean that relatives would not be able to prevent a dead person's organs being used in transplants if they had not opted out before they died. If the proposals are passed then Wales will be the first in the UK to go forward with the system.

8 Nov 2011

Study: Heart transplantation is a very safe and effective therapy

Heart transplantation is a very safe and effective therapy, according to a new long-term study presented today at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2011, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

24 Oct 2011

Women to use her mother’s womb in Australian medical first transplant

A Victorian woman will be the first Australian to use her own mother’s womb after it has been transplanted into her. Intensive care nurse Melinda Arnold, 34, will undergo a womb transplant after her mother, Denise Allen, agreed to donate the organ to her. Mrs. Arnold, who was born without a womb but with ovaries that produce eggs, twice tried unsuccessfully to use her mother as a surrogate and adoption attempts also failed.

17 Oct 2011

Skin cell to liver cell shows promise for genetic liver disease

In a new scientific breakthrough, researchers have taken skin cells from a patient with liver disease and turned them into replacement liver cells. Although the procedure is years before it can be used in humans, but if approved, it could launch a new era of personalized therapies for serious genetic disorders.

13 Oct 2011

New organ donation rules under consideration

Surgeons retrieving organs for transplant just after a donor's heart stops beating would no longer have to wait at least two minutes to be sure the heart doesn't spontaneously start beating again under new rules being considered by the group that coordinates organ allocation in the United States.

21 Sep 2011

First Edition: September 20, 2011

In today's headlines, details and analysis of President Barack Obama's debt-reduction plan, which would trim health programs by $320 billion and links such entitlement trims to new taxes.

20 Sep 2011

University of Maryland surgeons transplant first lungs treated with experimental repair process

Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center have transplanted the first lungs treated in the United States with an experimental repair process before transplantation. The procedure is part of a five-center national clinical research trial to evaluate the efficacy of repairing, before transplant, lungs that might otherwise have been passed over as unsuitable for organ donation.

8 Sep 2011

Legal, ethical and cultural barriers to child organ donations

Clinicians from a leading UK children's hospital have called for European countries to change the way they tackle the shortage of organ donations from children, after a review, published in the September issue of Acta Paediatrica, found a large number of legal, ethical and cultural barriers.

8 Sep 2011

Wiley-Blackwell, The Hastings Center partner to publish leading journal on bioethics

Wiley-Blackwell, the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (STMS) publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is pleased to announce a new partnership with The Hastings Center, to publish the Hastings Center Report, one of the leading journals in the field of bioethics.

5 Aug 2011

'Rule of rescue' often prevails in ICU: Study

High stakes life and death decisions are made every day by doctors and nurses in critical care units, but increasingly critical care clinicians are also tasked with containing costs and managing scarce resources in light of rising demands for and costs of care they provide. Physicians are often asked to consider limiting services for their patients to benefit society more broadly.

11 Jul 2011

ICU nurses doubt whether clinical neurological examination can establish brain death

More than half of Sweden's intensive care nurses doubt that a clinical neurological examination can establish that a patient is brain dead. Intensive care nurses also perceive that this uncertainty can affect relatives when the question of organ donation is raised, is reveiled in a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

29 Jun 2011

Ontarians can now register as organ and tissue donors online through new web site

For the first time ever, Ontarians can now register as organ and tissue donors online through a new web site, BeADonor.ca. Every registered donor has the potential to save up to eight lives.

15 Jun 2011

Cyclopamine may protect cholestatic livers from damage after transplant procedure

New research raises the possibility that the critically short supply of livers for organ donation could be expanded by treating so-called "marginal" livers with a substance that protects them from damage after being connected to recipients' blood supplies.

2 Jun 2011