Faculty Bibliography

A widely accepted severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine could protect vulnerable populations, but the willingness of solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) to accept a potential vaccine remains unknown.

BACKGROUND:With stressors of dialysis prekidney transplantation (KT) and restoration of kidney function post-KT, it is likely that KT recipients experience a decline in functional status while on the waitlist and improvements post-KT. METHODS:We leveraged 224 832 KT recipients from the national registry (SRTR, February 1990-May 2019) with measured Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS, 0%-100%) at listing, KT admission, and post-KT. We quantified the change in KPS from listing to KT using generalized linear models. We described post-KT KPS trajectories using adjusted mixed-effects models and tested whether those trajectories differed by age, sex, race, and diabetes status using a Wald test among all KT recipients. We then quantified risk adverse post-KT outcomes (mortality and all-cause graft loss [ACGL]) by preoperative KPS and time-varying KPS. RESULTS:Mean KPS declined from listing (83.7%) to admission (78.9%) (mean = 4.76%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -4.82, -4.70). After adjustment, mean KPS improved post-KT (slope = 0.89%/y, 95% CI: 0.87, 0.91); younger, female, non-Black, and diabetic recipients experienced greater post-KT improvements (Pinteractions < 0.001). Lower KPS (per 10% decrease) at admission was associated with greater mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.11) and ACGL (aHR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.09) risk. Lower post-KT KPS (per 10% decrease; time-varying) were more strongly associated with mortality (aHR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.92, 1.94) and ACGL (aHR = 1.84, 95% CI: 1.83, 1.85). CONCLUSIONS:Functional status declines pre-KT and improves post-KT in the national registry. Despite post-KT improvements, poorer functional status at KT and post-KT are associated with greater mortality and ACGL risk. Because of its dynamic nature, clinicians should repeatedly screen for lower functional status pre-KT to refer vulnerable patients to prehabilitation in hopes of reducing risk of adverse post-KT outcomes.

BACKGROUND:Black heart transplant recipients have higher risk of mortality than White recipients. Better understanding of this disparity, including subgroups most affected and timing of the highest risk, is necessary to improve care of Black recipients. We hypothesize that this disparity may be most pronounced among young recipients, as barriers to care like socioeconomic factors may be particularly salient in a younger population and lead to higher early risk of mortality. METHODS:We studied 22 997 adult heart transplant recipients using the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients data from January 2005 to 2017 using Cox regression models adjusted for recipient, donor, and transplant characteristics. RESULTS:=0.1). CONCLUSIONS:Young Black recipients have a high risk of mortality in the first year after heart transplant, which has been masked in decades of research looking at disparities in aggregate. To reduce overall racial disparities, clinical research moving forward should focus on targeted interventions for young Black recipients during this period.

Implementation of the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act marks a new era in transplantation, allowing organ transplantation from HIV+ donors to HIV+ recipients (HIV D+/R+ transplantation). In this review, we discuss major milestones in HIV and transplantation which paved the way for this landmark policy change, including excellent outcomes in HIV D-/R+ recipient transplantation and success in the South African experience of HIV D+/R+ deceased donor kidney transplantation. Under the HOPE Act, from March 2016 to December 2018, there were 56 deceased donors, and 102 organs were transplanted (71 kidneys and 31 livers). In 2019, the first HIV D+/R+ living donor kidney transplants occurred. Reaching the full estimated potential of HIV+ donors will require overcoming challenges at the community, organ procurement organization, and transplant center levels. Multiple clinical trials are ongoing, which will provide clinical and scientific data to further extend the frontiers of knowledge in this field.

A wide gap between the increasing demand for organs and the limited supply leads to immeasurable loss of life each year. The organ shortage could be attenuated by donors with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV). The transplantation of organs from HIV+ deceased donors into HIV+ individuals (HIV D+ /R+) was initiated in South Africa in 2010; however, this practice was forbidden in the USA until the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act in 2013. HIV D+/R+ transplantation is now practiced in the USA as part of ongoing research studies, helping to reduce waiting times for all patients on the waitlist. The introduction of direct acting antivirals for HCV has revolutionized the utilization of donors with HCV for HCV-uninfected (HCV-) recipients. This is particularly relevant as the HCV donor pool has increased substantially in the context of the rise in deaths related to drug overdose from injection drug use. This article serves to review the current literature on using organs from donors with HIV or HCV.

BACKGROUND:The aim of this study is to describe the economic trends in adults who underwent elective thyroidectomy. METHODS:We performed a population-based study utilizing the Premier Healthcare Database to examine adult patients who underwent elective thyroidectomy between January 2006 and December 2014. Time was divided into three equal time periods (2006-2008, 2009-2011, and 2012-2014). To examine trend in patient charges, we modeled patient charges using generalized linear regressions adjusting for key covariates with standard errors clustered at the hospital level. RESULTS:Our study cohort consisted of 52,012 adult patients who underwent a thyroid operation. During the study period, the most common procedure changed from a thyroid lobectomy to bilateral thyroidectomy. Over the study period, there was an increase in the proportion of completion thyroidectomies from 1.1% to 1.6% (P < 0.001), malignant diagnoses from 21.7% to 26.8% (P < 0.001), procedures performed at teaching hospitals from 27.7% to 32.9% (P < 0.001), and procedures performed on an outpatient basis from 93.85% to 97.55% (P < 0.001). The annual increase in median patient charge adjusted for inflation was $895 or 4.3% resulting in an increase of 38.8% over 9 y. Higher thyroidectomy charges were associated with male patients, malignant surgical pathology, patients undergoing limited or radical neck dissection, experiencing complications, those with managed health care insurance, and a prolonged length of stay. CONCLUSIONS:Despite recent changes in thyroid surgery practices to decrease the economic burden of hospitals, costs continue to rise 4.3% annually. Additional prospective studies are needed to identify factors associated with this increasing cost.

Induction therapy with rabbit anti-thymocyte globulin (rATG) in low-risk kidney transplant recipients (KTR) remains controversial, given the associated increased risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. This natural experiment compared 12-month clinical outcomes in low-risk KTR without CMV prophylaxis (January/3/13-September/16/15) receiving no induction or a single 3 mg/kg dose of rATG. We used logistic regression to characterize delayed graft function (DGF), negative binomial to characterize length of hospital stay (LOS), and Cox regression to characterize acute rejection (AR), CMV infection, graft loss, death, and hospital readmissions. Recipients receiving 3 mg/kg rATG had an 81% lower risk of AR (aHR _0.14 0.19_0.25 , P < 0.001) but no increased rate of hospital readmissions because of infections (_0.68 0.91_1.21 , P = 0.5). There was no association between 3 mg/kg rATG and CMV infection/disease (aHR _0.86 1.10_1.40 , P = 0.5), even when the analysis was stratified according to recipient CMV serostatus positive (aHR _0.94 1.25_1.65 , P = 0.1) and negative (aHR _0.28 0.57_1.16 , P = 0.1). There was no association between 3 mg/kg rATG and mortality (aHR _0.51 1.25_3.08 , P = 0.6), and graft loss (aHR _0.34 0.73_1.55 , P = 0.4). Among low-risk KTR receiving no CMV pharmacological prophylaxis, 3 mg/kg rATG induction was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of AR without an increased risk of CMV infection, regardless of recipient pretransplant CMV serostatus.

Importance:Female liver transplant candidates experience higher rates of wait list mortality than male candidates. Frailty is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with cirrhosis, but how frailty differs between women and men is unknown. Objective:To determine whether frailty is associated with the gap between women and men in mortality among patients with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplantation. Design, Setting, and Participants:This prospective cohort study enrolled 1405 adults with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplant without hepatocellular carcinoma seen during 3436 ambulatory clinic visits at 9 US liver transplant centers. Data were collected from January 1, 2012, to October 1, 2019, and analyzed from August 30, 2019, to October 30, 2020. Exposures:At outpatient evaluation, the Liver Frailty Index (LFI) score was calculated (grip strength, chair stands, and balance). Main Outcomes and Measures:The risk of wait list mortality was quantified using Cox proportional hazards regression by frailty. Mediation analysis was used to quantify the contribution of frailty to the gap in wait list mortality between women and men. Results:Of 1405 participants, 578 (41%) were women and 827 (59%) were men (median age, 58 [interquartile range (IQR), 50-63] years). Women and men had similar median scores on the laboratory-based Model for End-stage Liver Disease incorporating sodium levels (MELDNa) (women, 18 [IQR, 14-23]; men, 18 [IQR, 15-22]), but baseline LFI was higher in women (mean [SD], 4.12 [0.85] vs 4.00 [0.82]; P = .005). Women displayed worse balance of less than 30 seconds (145 [25%] vs 149 [18%]; P = .003), worse sex-adjusted grip (mean [SD], -0.31 [1.08] vs -0.16 [1.08] kg; P = .01), and fewer chair stands per second (median, 0.35 [IQR, 0.23-0.46] vs 0.37 [IQR, 0.25-0.49]; P = .04). In unadjusted mixed-effects models, LFI was 0.15 (95% CI, 0.06-0.23) units higher in women than men (P = .001). After adjustment for other variables associated with frailty, LFI was 0.16 (95% CI, 0.08-0.23) units higher in women than men (P < .001). In unadjusted regression, women experienced a 34% (95% CI, 3%-74%) increased risk of wait list mortality than men (P = .03). Sequential covariable adjustment did not alter the association between sex and wait list mortality; however, adjustment for LFI attenuated the mortality gap between women and men. In mediation analysis, an estimated 13.0% (IQR, 0.5%-132.0%) of the gender gap in wait list mortality was mediated by frailty. Conclusions and Relevance:These findings demonstrate that women with cirrhosis display worse frailty scores than men despite similar MELDNa scores. The higher risk of wait list mortality that women experienced appeared to be explained in part by frailty.