Author Interviews, JAMA, Johns Hopkins, Kidney Disease, Transplantation / 23.01.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tanjala S. Purnell, PhD MPH Assistant Professor of Surgery, Epidemiology, and Health Behavior and Society Core Faculty, Epidemiology Research Group in Organ Transplantation Johns Hopkins University Associate Director for Education and Training, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity Member, OPTN/UNOS Minority Affairs Committee  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
  • Our study was motivated by the fact that we know live donor kidney transplants are associated with longer life expectancy and higher quality of life than deceased donor kidney transplants or long-term dialysis treatment. We also know that Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than White adults to have end-stage kidney disease but are less likely than White patients to receive live donor kidney transplants.
  • Over the last 2 decades, there have been several transplant education programs implemented within transplant centers and dialysis centers, and legislative policies enacted to improve overall access to live donor kidney transplants for patients. We wanted to see whether these programs and policies resulted in narrowed racial and ethnic disparities in access to live donor kidney transplants in the United States. 
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Author Interviews, Kidney Disease, Transplantation / 15.07.2014

Dr Hallvard Holdaas Consultant in Nephrology National Hospital of Oslo, NorwayMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Hallvard Holdaas Consultant in Nephrology Department of Transplant Medicine Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet, Oslo Norway. Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Holdaas: Most studies examining long-term risk for living kidney donors have included  comparators from the background population with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, reduced renal function, cancer and other concomitant diseases; or for the few studies with more “healthy” comparators the follow-up time have been restricted. In our study we compared living donors to a healthy non-donor population which would have qualified as donors themselves, with median follow-up of 15.1 years for the donors. The relative risk for the living donors compared to a healthy control was 11.38 for endstage renal disease (ESRD), 1.4 for cardiovascular death and 1.3 for all-cause mortality (Mjoen et al., 2014). (more…)