Immunization of renal transplant recipients with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae, a common pathogen leading to pneumonia, is a cause of morbidity and mortality in immunosuppressed patients. Vaccination against this agent can be recommended for immunosuppressed patients, including those with chronic renal failure, nephrotic syndrome and renal transplant recipients; however, a diminished immune response and loss of protective antibodies have been observed.

Patients And Methods: In our prospective study, the efficacy and side effects of polyvalent pneumococcal vaccination were investigated in renal transplant recipients.

Clinical outcomes of renal cholesterol crystal embolization.

Cholesterol crystal embolization is an increasingly recognized disease, presenting with a wide clinical spectrum, usually occurring in elderly men who undergo an angiographic procedure or vascular surgery. We report three patients who developed systemic cholesterol embolic disease and varying degrees of renal failure after angiographic interventions of the coronaries.