Therapeutic Immunosuppression


Book Description

This work has broad applications in clinical medicine, ranging from prevention and treatment of organ and bone marrow transplant rejection, management of various autoimmune disorders (for example, rheumatoid arthritis), skin disease and asthma. Whereas traditionally only a small repertoire of immunosuppressive agents was available for clinical use, recent discoveries have significantly increased the number of approved agents, resulting in numerous trials to further evaluate their potential. There is also considerable interest in the potential of cell-based therapies (particularly hematopoietic stem and dendritic cell therapy) of allo- and autoimmunity. Important recent advances in the immunotherapy of allergic diseases are also covered in this book. This volume is intended both for practising physicians and surgeons and for biomedical scientists at the graduate/postdoctoral levels, and is designed to provide the theory behind these various approaches to immunosuppression, and to provide state-of-the-art reviews of current developments in each area.




Liver Transplantation


Book Description

Explore this practical and step-by-step guide to managing liver transplant patients from leading international clinicians in Hepatology The newly revised Second Edition of Liver Transplantation: Clinical Assessment and Management delivers expert clinical guidance on best practices in managing the care of liver transplant patients. Authors are all experts in their field and cover a world-wide perspective. Organized in an accessible, stepwise fashion and packed with text features such as key points, the book covers all critical areas of each stage of the liver transplant journey, from assessment, to management on the list, to long term care. Readers will learn when to refer a patient for liver transplantation, how to assess a potential liver transplant recipient, learn the principles of the procedure and the long term management of the transplant recipient. Liver Transplantation provides the entire hepatology and surgical team the information required for a sound understanding of the entire procedure, from pre- to post-operative care and management. Clinically oriented and management-focused, the book is far more accessible than the liver transplant sections in traditional hepatology textbooks. Readers will also enjoy: A thorough discussion of when to refer a patient for liver transplantation, including general considerations and the use and abuse of prognostic models An exploration of the selection, assessment, and management of patients on the transplant list, including how to manage a patient with chronic liver disease while on the waiting list A treatment of liver transplantation for acute liver failure (ALF), including assessment and management of ALF patients on the transplant waiting list A discussion of care of the liver transplant recipient after the procedure in the short and long term Perfect for gastroenterologists, hepatologists, and surgeons and other health care professionals managing patients with liver disease who are awaiting, undergoing and following liver transplantation, Liver Transplantation: Clinical Assessment and Management will also earn a place in the libraries of medical students, residents, internal medicine physicians, and GI/Hepatology trainees and all health care professionals providing clinical care to people with liver disease, before, during and after transplantation.




Chalk Talks in Internal Medicine


Book Description

This book provides teaching scripts for medical educators in internal medicine and coaches them in creating their own teaching scripts. Every year, thousands of attending internists are asked to train the next generation of physicians to master a growing body of knowledge. Formal teaching time has become increasingly limited due to rising clinical workload, medical documentation requirements, duty hour restrictions, and other time pressures. In addition, today’s physicians-in-training expect teaching sessions that deliver focused, evidence-based content that is integrated into clinical workflow. In keeping with both time pressures and trainee expectations, academic internists must be prepared to effectively and efficiently teach important diagnostic and management concepts. A teaching script is a methodical and structured plan that aids in effective teaching. The teaching scripts in this book anticipate learners’ misconceptions, highlight a limited number of teaching points, provide evidence to support the teaching points, use strategies to engage the learners, and provide a cognitive scaffold for teaching the topic that the teacher can refine over time. All divisions of internal medicine (e.g. cardiology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology) are covered and a section on undifferentiated symptom-based presentations (e.g. fatigue, fever, and unintentional weight loss) is included. This book provides well-constructed teaching scripts for commonly encountered clinical scenarios, is authored by experienced academic internists and allows the reader to either implement them directly or modify them for their own use. Each teaching script is designed to be taught in 10-15 minutes, but can be easily adjusted by the reader for longer or shorter talks. Teaching Scripts in Internal Medicine is an ideal tool for internal medicine attending physicians and trainees, as well as physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners, and all others who teach and learn internal medicine.




Living Donor Liver Transplantation (2nd Edition)


Book Description

The book describes in detail the technical aspects of Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT), the routine practice of the world renowned Liver Transplant Team at Hong Kong's Queen Mary Hospital, and our views on various issues of the operation. The thorough review on the history and technical procedures of LDLT and discussion on various aspects of the operation and its future perspectives will serve as a unique reference for surgeons, researchers, nurses, medical students, patients and laypersons seeking information on LDLT.This latest edition offers updated operative results from our center and the latest modifications of the technique. With contributions from a leading microvascular surgeon, a critical care clinician, a psychiatrist, and two anesthetists from the same liver transplant team, the LDLT experience at Queen Mary Hospital is depicted in an even greater extent.




Principles and Practice of Transplant Infectious Diseases


Book Description

This comprehensive volume provides a platform from which both major and minor infectious diseases related issues are addressed in-depth among this highly susceptible population. The book begins with an overview of infections in various modalities. This is followed by chapters on clinical disorders, etiologic agents, therapeutics, and infection prevention. Chapters include easy-to-follow figures and tables, radiologic images, and pictorial demonstrations of various disease states to familiarize and reacquaint the transplant clinicians and surgeons in practice and training, and those belonging to subspecialties providing supportive care for these patients. Discussions to enumerate the noninfectious causes that mimic infectious diseases; clinical relevance and effective utility of existing and emerging diagnostic tools are presented throughout the book. Authored by leaders in their fields, this book is the go-to reference for management of patients undergoing hematopoietic and solid organ transplantation.







Sunlight, Vitamin D and Skin Cancer


Book Description

The third edition is a comprehensive and updated overview of positive and negative effects of UV-exposure, with a focus on Vitamin D and skin cancer. Researchers, oncologists,and students will be provided with the most significant and timely information related to topics such as the epidemiology of skin cancer, the immune system and skin cancer, ultraviolet damage, DNA repair and Vitamin D in Nonmelanoma skin cancer and malignant melanoma. There have been a number of new, scientific findings in this fast moving field that necessitated a thoroughly updated and revised edition including new Vitamin D metabolites and skin cancer, new findings on the beneficial effects of UV and solar UV and skin cancer, adverse effects of sun protection and sunscreens, sun exposure and mortality, and more. The book will summarize essential, up-to-date information for every clinician or scientist interested in how to balance the positive and negative effects of UV‐exposure to minimize the risks of developing vitamin D deficiency and skin cancer.




Core Concepts in Renal Transplantation


Book Description

Though kidney transplantation is considered a routine procedure, there are still significant challenges in post-transplant management. Core Concepts in Renal Transplantation is a clinically focused authoritative guide to the management of kidney transplantation. This comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference summarizes the recent changes in the field of transplantation, offering the complete range of up-to-date information on all the various aspects of basic immunobiology and the medical care of the transplant recipient. Written by a team of renowned authorities in renal transplantation, this concise resource is intended for both the nephrologist and the non-specialist with an interest in kidney transplantation.




Anatomy & Physiology


Book Description

A version of the OpenStax text




Malignant Tumors in Organ Transplant Recipients


Book Description

There is a great deal of experimental work leading to the conclusion that immuno suppression of any kind increases susceptibility to clinical or viral carcinogenesis. Human epidemiology had already given some intimation of the abnormally high incidence of neoplasms in persons suffering from immunologic insufficiency. The first statistics on the incidence of cancer in organ transplant recipients tend to support this thesis. Transplantation can favor metastasis in a recipient who already has a malignancy; similarly, it can encourage the development of tumor cells which may be present in an organ transplanted from a cancerous donor; and finally, the frequency of lymphomas and carcinomas is higher in transplant recipients than in the general population. Immunodepression induced to facilitate tolerance clearly falls under suspicion on the basis of the experimental and clinical findings mentioned above. Anti-lymphocyte serum is not the only suspect-tumors have also occurred in patients treated with prednisone and Imuran alone. Now comes Dr. PENN'S monograph with a detailed account of these phenomena, together with an analysis and discussion. Clearly, induced carcinogenesis in man must be taken seriously. Not only must every precaution be taken in the screening of donor and recipient and the choice of immunosuppressive therapy in order to reduce it to the minimum, there is also the question whether the long-term immunosuppressive treatments inflicted upon patients in whom an auto-immune mechanism is thought to be the cause of the disease-treat ments whose efficacy is even more questionable than the mechanism-might not themselves be contributing to malignancy.