Late steroid withdrawal and cardiovascular events in kidney transplant recipients.

Introduction: Cardiovascular events (CVE) are the leading cause of mortality in kidney transplant recipients. The adverse effects of long-term therapy with steroids on cardiovascular risk have motivated increasing interest in steroid withdrawal (SW). The objective of this study was to compare the incidences of CVE and all-cause mortality between patients who had undergone SW at 1 year posttransplant and control patients who continued on steroids.

Long-term kidney regraft survival from deceased donors: risk factors and outcomes in a single center.

Background: Although survival of kidney regrafts is similar to that of primary grafts, risk factors associated with regraft survival have not been defined clearly. The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors for regraft outcome, including characteristics of the previous and current transplant, and time to retransplant.

Methods: In a historical cohort study, 966 primary and 176 repeat deceased donor kidney graft recipients transplanted between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2004 were studied.

Selective, concurrent bilateral nephrectomies at renal transplantation for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Purpose: An algorithm was developed for performing bilateral nephrectomies for specific indications before or at renal transplantation in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. Outcomes for the living donor arm of the algorithm are reported.

Materials And Methods: Patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease and end stage renal disease were evaluated for transplantation.

Living unrelated donor renal transplantation: a single center experience.

Purpose: Living, genetically unrelated donor renal transplantation (LURT) is being performed with increasing frequency. We evaluated our single center experience with LURT and compared this to a cohort of living related donor renal transplants (LRT) to evaluate the short-term success of LURT at our center.

Materials And Methods: We identified 99 consecutive patients who underwent LURT at our center and had at least 1 year of followup data.

Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease as a risk factor for diabetes mellitus following renal transplantation.

Background: Posttransplant diabetes mellitus is an important complication of renal transplantation that is associated with a significant impact on quality of life and an increase in long-term morbidity and mortality. Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a hereditary disease that commonly leads to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in adulthood. The association between ADPKD and posttransplant diabetes mellitus has not been previously studied in a large cohort of patients.

Protecting patient privacy in clinical data mining.

This paper investigates whether HIPAA de-identification requirements--as well as proposed AAMC de-identification standards--were met in a large clinical data mining study (1997-2001) conducted at Duke University prior to the publication of the final rule. While HIPAA has improved de-identification standards, the study also shows that privacy issues may persist even in de-identified large clinical databases.