Identification of race-associated metabolite biomarkers for hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with liver cirrhosis and hepatitis C virus infection.

Disparities in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence and survival have been observed between ethnic groups including African-Americans (AA) and European-Americans (EA). The evaluation of the changes in the levels of metabolites in samples stratified by race could provide a snapshot of ethnically diverse disease related pathways and identify reliable biomarkers. In this study, we considered AA and EA to investigate metabolites that may be associated with HCC in a race-specific manner.

Pre-empting Antibody-Mediated Rejection: A Program of DSA Monitoring and Treatment Can Effectively Prevent Antibody Mediated Rejection.

Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) remains a problem without a reliable treatment in the care of kidney transplant patients. We proposed and tested a program of screening for donor specific antibodies (DSA) to initiate treatment of patients before AMR was detected and to prevent its occurrence. Starting in April 2012, we stratified patients into high-, medium-, and low-risk groups for the development of DSA and instituted a program of screening for and treatment of these antibodies.