Tuesday, January 21, 2020 from 2:00 PM ET to 3:00 PM ET • Hosted by the Infectious Disease Community of Practice (IDCOP)

"Ultra-short Duration Direct Acting Anti-Viral Prophylaxis to Prevent Virus Transmission from Hepatitis C Viremic Donors to Hepatitis C Negative Kidney Transplant Recipients."
(Am J Transplant. 2019 Oct 25. doi: 10.1111/ajt.15664. [Epub ahead of print]).

In this article:
[The authors] conducted an adaptive design single-center pilot trial between October 2017 and November 2018 to determine the safety and efficacy of ultra-short-term perioperative pangenotypic direct acting antiviral (DAA) prophylaxis for deceased hepatitis C virus (HCV)-nucleic acid test (NAT) positive donors to HCV negative kidney recipients (D+/R-).... At a median follow-up of 8 months posttransplant, overall patient and allograft survivals were 98%, respectively. The 4-day strategy reduced viral transmission to 7.5% (3/40; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.8%-20.5%) and could result in avoidance of prolonged posttransplant DAA therapy for most D+/R - transplants.

Speakers:
Gaurav Gupta, MD • Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Richard Sterling, MD • Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Moderator:
Deirdre Sawinski, MD, FAST • University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA

AST/AJT Journal Clubs are free to both AST and non-AST members, but registration is required. Please feel free to share the registration link with colleagues and fellows who may be interested in the discussion.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019, from 2:00 PM ET to 3:00 PM ET • Hosted by theTransplant Pharmacy Community of Practice (TxPharm COP)

""Efficacy and safety of bleselumab in kidney transplant recipients: A phase 2, randomized, open-label, noninferiority study."
(Am J Transplant. 2019 Sep 11. doi: 10.1111/ajt.15591. [Epub ahead of print])

In this article:
This study assessed the efficacy and safety of the anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody bleselumab (ASKP1240) in de novo kidney transplant recipients over 36 months posttransplant.... For the primary endpoint (incidence of biopsy-proven acute rejection [BPAR] at 6 months), bleselumab + IR-TAC was noninferior to SoC, and bleselumab + MMF did not demonstrate noninferiority to SoC. BPAR incidence slightly increased through month 36 in all groups, with bleselumab + IR-TAC continuing to demonstrate noninferiority to SoC. Bleselumab had a favorable benefit-risk ratio. Most treatment-emergent adverse events were as expected for kidney transplant recipients (see also ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01780844).

Speaker:
Bharath Ravichandran, PharmD • University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD

Moderator:
Stephen Jensik, MD • Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL

AST/AJT Journal Clubs are free to both members and non-members. Pre-register today to support this TxPharm COP session, and please feel free to share the registration link with your colleagues!

Thursday, November 21st, 2019, from 3:00 PM ET to 4:00 PM ET • Hosted by the Live Donor Community of Practice (LDCOP)

"Impact of estimation versus direct measurement of predonation glomerular filtration rate on the eligibility of potential living kidney donors."
(Kidney Int. 2019 Apr;95(4):896-904. doi: 10.1016/j.kint.2018.11.029. Epub 2019 Feb 26.)

In this article:
While direct measurements of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) provide the most accurate evaluation of pre-donation kidney function, guidelines do not systematically require the use of a reference method. [The authors] evaluated whether and to what extent relying upon creatinine-based estimating equations (eGFR) rather than direct measurement of GFR (mGFR) alters the selection of potential living donors.... [The authors] conclude that creatinine-based estimates cannot substitute for direct GFR measurement to evaluate candidates for kidney donation. When reference methods for direct GFR measurement are not available, our data suggest that a strategy based on age-adapted eGFR values estimated with either the CKD-EPI or FAS equation should be preferred.

Speaker:
François Gaillard, MD, PhD • Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France

Moderator:
Edmund Huang, MD • Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

AST/AJT Journal Clubs are free to both members and non-members. Pre-register today to support this LDCOP session, and please feel free to share the registration link with your colleagues!