As part of triple-drug immunosuppression, everolimus (1.5 or 3 mg/day) was as efficacious as MMF, although the side-effect profile featured increased adverse events. Nephrotoxicity/calcineurin-inhibitor-related adverse events will require judicious lowering of CsA exposure with monitoring of everolimus troughs.

No abstract

Twenty-nine percutaneous balloon dilations of the axillary and subclavian veins were performed in 19 patients. Stenoses occurred in typical locations of anatomic narrowing or at sites of previous trauma. The initial success rate was 76%, with a 1-year patency rate of 35% and a 2-year patency rate of 6%. Angioplasty can be performed on an outpatient basis with a very low rate of significant complications and can be repeated numerous times to keep a vein patent for many years. This procedure is especially valuable in dialysis patients who have limited access sites.

Abstract. The urinary proteome in health and disease attracts increasing attention because of the potential diagnostic and pathophysiologic biomarker information carried by specific excreted proteins or their constellations. This cross-sectional study aimed to analyze the urinary proteome in patients with biopsy-proven acute rejection (n ϭ 23) compared with transplant recipients with stable graft function (n ϭ 22) and healthy volunteers (n ϭ 20) and to correlate this with clinical, morphologic, and laboratory data. Urine samples were preadsorbed on four different protein chip surfaces, and the protein composition was analyzed using a surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer platform. The data were analyzed using two independent approaches to sample classification. Patients who experienced acute rejection could be distinguished from stable patients with a sensitivity of 90.5 to 91.3% and a specificity of 77.2 to 83.3%, depending on the classifier used. Protein masses that were important in constructing the classification algorithms included those of mass 2003.0, 2802.6, 4756.3, 5872.4, 6990.6, 19,018.8, and 25,665.7 Da. Normal urine was distinguished from transplant urine using a protein marker of mass 78,531.2 Da with both a sensitivity and a specificity of 100%. In conclusion, (1) urine proteome in transplant recipients with stable graft function was significantly different from healthy control subjects, and (2) acute rejections were characterized by a constellation of excreted proteins. Analysis of the urinary proteome may expedite the noninvasive prediction of acute graft rejection, thus importantly assisting in establishing the diagnosis.

Leukocyte function associated antigen-1 (LFA-1) has a multifaceted role in the immune response, including adhesion and trafficking of leukocytes, stabilizing the immune synapse of the MHC-TCR complex and providing costimulation signals. Monoclonal antibodies to the CD11a chain of LFA-1 have been seen to result in effective immunosuppression in experimental models. Efalizumab, a humanized IgG1 antiCD11a, is approved for use in psoriasis and may provide effective immunosuppression in organ transplantation. Thirty-eight patients undergoing their first living donor or deceased renal transplant were randomized to receive efalizumab 0.5 or 2 mg/kg weekly subcutaneously for 12 weeks. Patients were maintained on full dose cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil and steroids or half dose cyclosporine, sirolimus and prednisone. At 6 months following transplant patient survival was 97% and graft survival was 95%. Clinical biopsy-proven acute rejection in the first 6 months after transplantation was confirmed in 4 of 38 patients (11%). Three patients (8%) developed post transplant lymphoproliferative disease, all treated with the higher dose efalizumab and full dose cyclosporine. The two doses of efalizumab resulted in comparable saturation and modulation of CD11a. This phase II trial suggests that efalizumab may warrant further investigation in transplantation.

We retrospectively reviewed the course of 1,000 renal transplants performed in 835 recipients (758 non-diabetics) to assess the incidence of new onset posttransplant diabetes in former nondiabetics. A total of 119 (15.7%) recipients manifested posttransplant diabetes, of whom 64 (53.8%) became hyperglycemic within 3 weeks of transplantation. Actuarial survival analysis indicated a statistically significant selection of blacks; 68 (57.1 %) in the group of posttransplant diabetics contrasted with 30.4% of the overall series who were black (p = < 0.0l). Males comprised 73 (61.3%) of posttransplant diabetics, consistent with the male proportion of 66.6% in the entire series. The total dose of methylprednisolone administered before onset of posttransplant diabetes was less than 2.5 g in 86 (69%) and less than 5 g in 110 (92%) patients. Familial diabetes had been noted in 12(10%) posttransplant diabetics and in 10 (9%) controls. New cases of posttransplant diabetes occurred at a relatively constant annual rate over the decade of study ( ± 15%/year). Patient survival in controls was greater than in posttransplant diabetics, reaching significance (83 vs. 67%) at 2 years. Kidney graft survival in controls and posttransplant diabetics was similar. We conclude that posttransplant diabetes is of greater prevalence in blacks, is not proportional to total dose or duration of intravenous methylprednisolone therapy, and imposes a threat to recipient survival.

One hundred forty-one dilatations of stenotic lesions in dialysis access fistulas were performed. The initial success rate was 82%. The one-year patency rate was 45%, with a 2-year patency rate of 24%. Best results were obtained with a discrete stenosis at a graft-to-vein anastomosis. The procedure can be done on an outpatient basis and, although long-term results are poor, in appropriate patients multiple dilatations can be performed to keep a fistula functioning for many years.

We previously demonstrated that 4.7 kDa and 4.4 kDa peptides are useful in diagnosing acute rejection in renal transplant recipients. The aim of this study was to characterize these polypeptides and assess their potential as biomarkers. In conclusion, the ratio of b -Defensin-1 and a -1-antichymotrypsin excretion in the urine is a novel, potentially useful candidate biomarkers of acute rejection.