Introduction: Transplant clinicians may disagree on whether or not to accept a deceased donor kidney offer. We investigated the interobserver variability between transplant nephrologists regarding... Show moreIntroduction: Transplant clinicians may disagree on whether or not to accept a deceased donor kidney offer. We investigated the interobserver variability between transplant nephrologists regarding organ acceptance and whether the use of a prediction model impacted their decisions. Methods: We developed an observational online survey with 6 real-life cases of deceased donor kidneys offered to a waitlisted recipient. Per case, nephrologists were asked to estimate the risk of adverse outcome and whether they would accept the offer for this patient, or for a patient of their own choice, and how certain they felt. These questions were repeated after revealing the risk of adverse outcome, calcu-lated by a validated prediction model. Results: Sixty Dutch nephrologists completed the survey. The intraclass correlation coefficient of their estimated risk of adverse outcome was poor (0.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.08-0.62). Interobserver agreement of the decision on whether or not to accept the kidney offer was also poor (Fleiss kappa 0.13, 95% CI 0.129-0.130). The acceptance rate before and after providing the outcome of the prediction model was significantly influenced in 2 of 6 cases. Acceptance rates varied considerably among transplant centers. Conclusion: In this study, the estimated risk of adverse outcome and subsequent decision to accept a suboptimal donor kidney varied greatly among transplant nephrologists. The use of a prediction model could influence this decision and may enhance nephrologists' certainty about their decision. Show less
Ramspek, C.L.; Moumni, M. el; Wali, E.; Heemskerk, M.B.A.; Pol, R.A.; Crop, M.J.; ... ; Moers, C. 2021
With a rising demand for kidney transplantation, reliable pre-transplant assessment of organ quality becomes top priority. In clinical practice, physicians are regularly in doubt whether suboptimal... Show moreWith a rising demand for kidney transplantation, reliable pre-transplant assessment of organ quality becomes top priority. In clinical practice, physicians are regularly in doubt whether suboptimal kidney offers from older donors should be accepted. Here, we externally validate existing prediction models in a European population of older deceased donors, and subsequently developed and externally validated an adverse outcome prediction tool. Recipients of kidney grafts from deceased donors 50 years of age and older were included from the Netherlands Organ Transplant Registry (NOTR) and United States organ transplant registry from 2006-2018. The predicted adverse outcome was a composite of graft failure, death or chronic kidney disease stage 4 plus within one year after transplantation, modelled using logistic regression. Discrimination and calibration were assessed in internal, temporal and external validation. Seven existing models were validated with the same cohorts. The NOTR development cohort contained 2510 patients and 823 events. The temporal validation within NOTR had 837 patients and the external validation used 31987 patients in the United States organ transplant registry. Discrimination of our full adverse outcome model was moderate in external validation (C-statistic 0.63), though somewhat better than discrimination of the seven existing prediction models (average C-statistic 0.57). The model's calibration was highly accurate. Thus, since existing adverse outcome kidney graft survival models performed poorly in a population of older deceased donors, novel models were developed and externally validated, with maximum achievable performance in a population of older deceased kidney donors. These models could assist transplant clinicians in deciding whether to accept a kidney from an older donor. Show less
Hoogduijn, M.J.; Popp, F.C.; Grohnert, A.; Crop, M.J.; Rhijn, M. van; Rowshani, A.T.; ... ; MISOT Study Grp 2010
There is evolving interest in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in solid organ transplantation. Pre-clinical transplantation models show efficacy of MSC in prolonging graft survival and a... Show moreThere is evolving interest in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) in solid organ transplantation. Pre-clinical transplantation models show efficacy of MSC in prolonging graft survival and a number of clinical studies are planned or underway. At a recent meeting of the MISOT consortium (MSC In Solid Organ Transplantation) the advances of these studies were evaluated and mechanisms underlying the potential effects of MSC discussed. Continued discussion is required for definition of safety and eventually efficacy endpoints for MSC therapy in solid organ transplantation. Show less
