1. How is hypertension defined and classified? The Eighth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (Joint National Committee 8), published in 2014, continues to classify hypertension by the degree of…
1. What are the risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients receiving a kidney transplant? See Table 61.1 . Table 61.1. Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease TRADITIONAL TRANSPLANT RELATED CONDITIONAL Age Immunosuppression Homocysteine Male sex CKD CRP Family history…
1. What type of infections do kidney transplant recipients develop? Donor-derived infections Recipient-derived infections Nosocomial-acquired infections Community-acquired infections 2. Is there any pattern to infections that occur post transplantation? Yes. Karuthu et al. reviewed this recently, including the timing of…
1. Are transplant recipients at greater risk for the development of malignancies? Yes. The chronic exposure to immunosuppressive agents increases the long-term risk of malignancy by two to threefold compared with the general population of the same age and sex.…
1. How to evaluate acute kidney injury (AKI) in the kidney transplant patient? See Fig. 58.1 . When deciding the baseline kidney function and using the serum creatinine (Scr), the clinician must be careful. The ideal baseline Scr is based…
1. What is the goal of immunosuppression? The central goal of immunosuppression is to prevent rejection of the renal allograft. The intensity of immunosuppression must be weighed against the undesired consequences of immunodeficiency, such as infection or cancer. Close monitoring,…
1. What are the various categories of living-donor transplants? Related donors: Donor and recipient are biologically related. Unrelated donors: Donor is not biologically related, but an emotional relationship exists between the donor and recipient (e.g., coworker, classmate, friend). Directed anonymous…
1. What is united network of organ sharing (UNOS)? UNOS is the nonprofit, scientific and educational organization that administrates over the United States national organ registry known as the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). UNOS originated as an initiative…
1. What is the definition of plasmapheresis, and when is it indicated? The term “apheresis” is Greek for “taking away” and refers to a procedure where the therapeutic removal of macromolecules from the plasma is done for therapeutic reasons. It…
Technical aspects of peritoneal dialysis 1. What is peritoneal dialysis (PD), and how does it work? PD is a means of removing waste (such as urea, creatinine, and phosphate), other solutes (i.e., sodium and chloride), and excess fluid from the…