Publications by authors named "April Pottebaum"
Article Synopsis
- The study examined the use of tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 receptor blocker, in treating acute antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in heart transplant patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
- All seven patients showed significant improvement in their functional heart status and echocardiographic results over 4-6 months of treatment.
- While there were improvements in heart function, the expected reductions in specific antibodies weren't consistently seen, indicating that tocilizumab might affect processes downstream in antibody production, and it had no major side effects leading to therapy discontinuation.
Unlabelled: Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) continues to have a deleterious impact on kidney allograft survival. Recent evidence supports use of tocilizumab for treatment of chronic active AMR, but it has not been assessed for treatment of acute active AMR.
Methods: We performed a single-center, observational study of kidney transplant recipients who received at least 1 dose of tocilizumab in addition to conventional therapies for acute active AMR between October 2016 and October 2018 with follow-up through August 2019.
Malignancy after solid organ transplant is a common occurrence that is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Literature in the general diabetic population has identified possible antineoplastic properties of metformin. This retrospective study aims to determine if metformin results in a malignancy risk reduction in a cohort of diabetic kidney, liver, and heart transplant recipients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvaluation of potential kidney transplant recipients is important to identify and treat conditions that may influence graft or patient survival after transplantation. We performed a single-center, observational cohort study to determine whether pretransplant midodrine use influences outcomes after kidney transplantation. We analyzed graft and patient outcomes for adult patients who underwent a kidney-only transplantation at Barnes-Jewish Hospital from January 1999 to December 2015.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common following kidney transplantation (KT); however, the influence of recurrent post-KT UTI (R-UTI) is not well-characterized.
Methods: We compared graft outcomes, patient outcomes and multidrug-resistance rates between patients with no UTI, nonrecurrent UTI (NR-UTI) (urine sample containing >105 bacterial colony-forming units/mL) and R-UTI (≥2 UTIs in any 6-month period or ≥3 UTIs in any 12-month period) post-KT in a retrospective cohort study (1999-2014) at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St Louis, MO). All adult KT recipients were included and those experiencing mortality within 30 days of KT were excluded.
Purpose: The recommended immunizations for adult asplenic patients are reviewed.
Summary: Patients without a spleen are at risk of developing overwhelming postsplenectomy infections due to encapsulated organisms, mainly pneumococcal, meningococcal, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib). Due to the high mortality rates associated with these infections, vaccinations are recommended as a preventive measure.