Transplantation

Transplantation
  

• JH Stone, WJC Amend, LA Criswell (Johns Hopkins Univ, Baltimore, Md; Univ of California, San Francisco)
  Outcome of Renal Transplantation in Ninety-Seven Cyclosporine-era Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Matched Controls.
  Arthritis Rheum  41:1438-1445, 1998.
    
  Ninety-seven patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who had renal transplantation during a 33-month period were compared with control patients who did not have SLE but received transplants during that period.
    
  Inferior transplantation outcomes were found among renal transplant patients with SLE in comparison with controls, and SLE patients had more than twice the risk of allograft loss.
     

• G Socie, for the Late Effects Working Committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry (Hopital Saint Louis, Paris)
  Long-term Survival and Late Deaths After Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation.
  N Engl J Med  341 : 14-21, 1999
      
  A study of recipients of allogenic BMTs showed that the risk of death remains high in the first 2 yrs. After 2 yrs the prognosis improves and many of these patients remain cured. Even so, the mortality rate in these patients remain higher than the general population.  In many patients (6%) secondary cancers developed.
     

• AG Bostom, RY Gohh, AJ Beaulieu, et al (Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition research Ctr, Boston; Rhode Island Hosp, Providence; Mem Hosp of Rhode Island, Pawtucket)
  Treatment of Hyperhomocysteinemia in Renal Transplant Recipients: A Randomized, Placebo controlled trial.    
  Ann Intern Med 127:1089-1092, 1997.
   
  It is of interest that plasma homocysteine increases in renal transplant recipients even in the presence of slight renal impairment. This may contribute to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in these individuals.
     
  Administration of vitamin B6 decreased homocysteine by 22% and folic acid plus vitamin B12 decreased homocysteine by 26%.