Transplant News and Research

RSS

Why does prolonged IV feeding damage the liver?

Children who cannot eat on their own because of intestinal failure must rely on parenteral nutrition (PN), an intravenous method of feeding.

3 Jul 2006

NYC's first 3-way kidney transplant

Six surgical transplant teams, including 40 clinicians, working simultaneously in six operating rooms successfully performed New York City's first three-way kidney transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.

26 Jun 2006

First full face transplant waits for the green light

If a top London hospital gets the green light from its ethical committee, the world's first full face transplant may very well be carried out in Britain.

19 Jun 2006

Circulating bone-marrow derived cells do not contribute to egg formation

Ovulated egg cells, or oocytes, in adult female mice are not formed from germ cells in the blood or bone marrow.

14 Jun 2006

Quebec's first successful combined heart/liver transplant

Doctors at the McGill University Health Center have announced Quebec's first successful combined heart/liver transplant.

9 Jun 2006

Glivec the best news yet for cancer victims

In what is great news for those suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), the drug Glivec looks like being one of the biggest breakthroughs in cancer therapy for a years.

7 Jun 2006

SuperGen receives patent for composition and method for treating graft-versus-host disease

SuperGen has announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,037,900 B2 entitled, "Composition and Method for Treating Graft-versus-Host Disease."

5 Jun 2006

UK's first 'beating heart' transplant a success

Surgeons in the UK have successfully kept a human heart alive and beating outside the body, before it was transplanted into a patient.

4 Jun 2006

Fatigue is a major problem after liver transplantation

A new study on fatigue experienced by patients after undergoing liver transplantation found that it is a major problem that does not tend to improve with the passage of time.

1 Jun 2006

Organ-recipients' deaths prompt call for suppliers of pet rodents to screen for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus

A case involving seven transplant recipients killed by a rodent-borne virus that they apparently acquired from donated and infected human organs has prompted a recommendation that regulatory authorities require suppliers of pet rodents to screen their colonies for the virus.

1 Jun 2006

Research could lead to new treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School have identified biochemical signals that attract pathogenic cells to damaged lung tissue - one of the first steps in a chain of events leading to a lethal disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis or IPF.

23 May 2006

Comprehensive care for complex, high-risk pregnancies

As many as 3 percent of all pregnancies result in the birth of a baby with chromosomal anomalies like Down syndrome or structural anomalies such as congenital heart disease.

23 May 2006

Surgeon in a rush removes wrong kidney

A doctor in the UK removed the wrong kidney from a patient and left her dependent on dialysis because he did not bother to read her medical notes.

23 May 2006

MRI provides an early alert for polycystic kidney disease

A new method using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accurately tracks structural changes that predict functional changes earlier than standard blood and urine tests in people with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

17 May 2006

What is it about grapefruit juice that affects some drugs?

Researchers in the United States say they have identified the compound in grapefruit juice that affects how some drugs are absorbed in the body and produces unwanted side effects.

14 May 2006

Potential for organ donation in the United Kingdom

The biggest obstacle to improving the organ donation rate in the United Kingdom is the number of relatives who refuse consent, say researchers in this week's British Medical Journal.

11 May 2006

Local clinical quality monitoring for detection of excess operative deaths

If convicted murderer Dr Harold Shipman had been working as a surgeon or anaesthetist at a specialist UK heart hospital in Cambridge, increased patient death rates would have alerted clinical audit staff after eight to ten months, according to research in the latest issue of Anaesthesia.

10 May 2006

Promising chemo, therapeutic viruses, cutting-edge surgery debut at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Brain tumor specialists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center are poised on the brink of a new era.

10 May 2006

Space technology to help hospitals contain spread of avian flu infection

In response to concerns from hospitals to prepare for eventual pandemic flu outbreaks, the French company AirInSpace, with support from ESA's Technology Transfer Programme, has successfully adapted technology developed to protect astronauts for use in critical care centres to protect immune-deficient patients against airborne pathogens such as the avian flu virus.

10 May 2006

Differential effects of HOXB4 on nonhuman primate short and long-term repopulating cells

Transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs, the cells that can give rise to all blood and most immune cell types) can save patients whose own hematopoietic system is defective or has been destroyed (often through radiation or chemotherapy of cancer).

3 May 2006