Comprehensive documentation of principal diagnosis/diagnoses, comorbidities and their complications is imperative to optimal DRG and WIES allocation. Regular meetings between clinical and coding staff improve the quality and timeliness of medical documentation, ensure adequate communication with general practitioners and lead to appropriate funding.
A bilateral sequential lung transplant was performed on a young female with cystic fibrosis-related bronchiectasis. She had negative prospective T- and B-cell crossmatch, and no known donor-specific antibodies. Post-transplantation, she developed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates of uncertain etiology, compounded by persistent tachycardia and questionable medication adherence. Despite aggressive intervention for suspected cellular rejection with high-dose intravenous corticosteroid, immunoglobulin, and anti-thymocyte globulin, her condition deteriorated to ultimately require ventilatory support. The eventual discovery of eplet donor-recipient mismatches on related DQB1 alleles raised the diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection. Before plasmapheresis could be instituted, the patient rapidly succumbed to respiratory failure. Postmortem examination confirmed features of atypical allograft rejection, without evidence of classic acute cellular rejection. This is an unconventional case of antibody-mediated lung allograft rejection – an entity that is currently a difficult diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Prevention of donor-specific antibodies by correct donor-recipient matching, and optimizing adherence post-transplantation are most important.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.