Radiation dose to staff from scatter radiation in the post-anaesthetic recovery ward.

Introduction: Though recovery is a significant aspect of the post-surgical orthopaedic patient pathway, radiation dose from medical imaging to staff within the post-anaesthetic recovery unit, is not extensively researched. This study aimed to quantify the distribution of scatter radiation for common post-surgical orthopaedic examinations.

Methods: A Raysafe Xi survey meter was used to record scattered dose at various locations around an anthropomorphic phantom, with positions simulating the potential positions of nearby staff and patients.

Preemptive simultaneous pancreas kidney transplantation has survival benefit to patients.

Several organ allocation protocols give priority to wait-listed simultaneous kidney-pancreas (SPK) transplant recipients to mitigate the higher cardiovascular risk of patients with diabetes mellitus on dialysis. The available information regarding the impact of preemptive simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplantation on recipient and graft outcomes is nonetheless controversial. To help resolve this, we explored the influence of preemptive simultaneous kidney-pancreas transplants on patient and graft survival through a retrospective analysis of the OPTN/UNOS database, encompassing 9690 simultaneous transplant recipients between 2000 and 2017.

Improving safety in organ recovery transportation: Report from the ASTS/UNOS/AST/AOPO transportation safety summit.

Despite the passage of a decade since the tragic loss of an organ recovery team from the University of Michigan, there are currently no national standards governing air and ground transportation of organ recovery personnel. Consequently, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, and the United Network for Organ Sharing jointly convened a transportation summit to review and update recommendations for national transportation standards. Expanded air transport quality assurance protocols, including a requirement for two engine turbine-powered aircraft piloted by two qualified pilots certified through onsite inspections was recommended.

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) for the treatment of T-cell malignancies.

At present, the only curative therapy for patients with T-cell malignancies is allogeneic stem cell transplant, which has associated risks and toxicities. Novel agents have been tried in relapsed T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), but only one, with 20%-30% complete remission rates, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. T-ALL is a heterogeneous disease, but it has universal overexpression of CD7 as well as several other T-cell markers, such as CD2 and CD5.

Development of social play in hamsters: Sex differences and their possible functions.

In several rodent species social play appears to be necessary for proper deployment of species-specific patterns of aggressive and reproductive behavior. Specifically, in male Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), play has been linked to the development of adult aggression. We quantified several types of social play behavior in same-sex peer groups of Syrian hamsters three times per week for three consecutive weeks after weaning, which included postnatal days 22-42 (PD22 to PD42).

Hierarchical steepness, counter-aggression, and macaque social style scale.

Nonhuman primates show remarkable variation in several aspects of social structure. One way to characterize this variation in the genus Macaca is through the concept of social style, which is based on the observation that several social traits appear to covary with one another in a linear or at least continuous manner. In practice, macaques are more simply characterized as fitting a four-grade scale in which species range from extremely despotic (grade 1) to extremely tolerant (grade 4).

Living kidney donor follow-up: state-of-the-art and future directions, conference summary and recommendations.

In light of continued uncertainty regarding postkidney donation medical, psychosocial and socioeconomic outcomes for traditional living donors and especially for donors meeting more relaxed acceptance criteria, a meeting was held in September 2010 to (1) review limitations of existing data on outcomes of living kidney donors; (2) assess and define the need for long-term follow-up of living kidney donors; (3) identify the potential system requirements, infrastructure and costs of long-term follow-up for living kidney donor outcomes in the United States and (4) explore practical options for future development and funding of United States living kidney donor data collection, metrics and endpoints. Conference participants included prior kidney donors, physicians, surgeons, medical ethicists, social scientists, donor coordinators, social workers, independent donor advocates and representatives of payer organizations and the federal government. The findings and recommendations generated at this meeting are presented.

The state of U.S. living kidney donors.

Background And Objectives: Increasing living kidney donation mandates ongoing assessment of living donors for future health risks and revision of national health policy.

Design, Setting, Participants, & Measurements: Living kidney donors as reported to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network database from January 1988 through December 2008 were reviewed for minor medical abnormalities, presence of donor health care coverage, and occurrence of surgical complications and death.

Results: At donation in 2008, 19.

Clinical results from transplanting incompatible live kidney donor/recipient pairs using kidney paired donation.

Context: First proposed 2 decades ago, live kidney paired donation (KPD) was considered a promising new approach to addressing the shortage of organs for transplantation. Ethical, administrative, and logistical barriers initially proved formidable and prevented the implementation of KPD programs in the United States.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and effectiveness of KPD for the management of patients with incompatible donors.

Plasmapheresis, CMV hyperimmune globulin, and anti-CD20 allow ABO-incompatible renal transplantation without splenectomy.

The majority of preconditioning protocols developed to allow ABO-incompatible (ABOi) renal transplantation include concurrent splenectomy as a prerequisite to successful engraftment. Our center has developed a preconditioning protocol that includes plasmapheresis (PP), low-dose CMV hyperimmune globulin (CMVIg), and anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (rituximab) to allow ABOi renal transplantation without splenectomy. Our initial experience has included treatment of six recipients and successful transplantation from blood group A(1), A(2), and group B living donors.