Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is the major cause of morbidity or mortality after marrow transplantation. The intestinal involvement of GVHD is associated with high graft failure. It is usually difficult to diagnose gastrointestinal (GI) GVHD because symptom is nonspecific, and diagnostic criteria in endoscopic and histologic findings lack the gold standard. We reviewed 7 patients with GI GVHD proven by endoscopic biopsy from September 1999 to June 2003. The common GI symptoms at the time of endoscopy were diarrhea and abdominal pain. Four patients were acute GVHD, two acute and chronic GVHD, and one chronic GVHD. The interval from bone marrow transplantation to GVHD diagnosis by histological examination varied from 18 days to 259 days. The skin was involved in 5 patients. Two cases showed normal endoscopic finding. From these results, endoscopic biopsy is a essential tool in evaluating patients with GI complaints after bone marrow transplantation.
Mortality ; Biopsy ; Bone Marrow Transplantation

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in transplant recipients and immunocompromised patients. We compared the results of a dual polymerase chain reaction (dual-PCR) and an antigenemia (Ag) test for detection of CMV from blood samples. METHODS: Between February 2002 and May 2005, we analyzed 175 blood samples submitted for CMV tests at Hanyang University Hospital. The late antigen (LA) and major immediate early (MIE) genes of CMV were concurrently amplified in the dual-PCR. The lower matrix protein pp65 of CMV was detected for the Ag test (Chemicon, Temecula, CA, USA). RESULTS: The positive rate of the dual-PCR was 14.3% (25/175) and that of the Ag test was 13.1% (23/175). The concordance rate of the dual-PCR and Ag test was 85.1% (149/175), while the discordance rate was 14.9% (26/175). CONCLUSION: The dual-PCR is a useful method for the early detection of CMV, but we recommend using both the dual-PCR and Ag test for detection of CMV due to a high discordance rate of the two methods.
Cytomegalovirus* ; Immunocompromised Host ; Mortality ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Transplantation

The survival rate after liver transplantation has greatly improved. However, complications such as infection and rejection remain major causes of mortality and morbidity. The fungal infections are associated with high mortality rates, despite having a relatively lower incidence, compared with bacterial and viral infections. Difficulty in establishing an early diagnosis, lack of effective therapy, difficult management of certain antifungal agent, limited data for antifungal prophylaxis presents remaining problems.3) We report our experience with one case of syatemic candidemia after orthotopic liver transplantation.
Candidemia* ; Early Diagnosis ; Incidence ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Mortality ; Survival Rate

The survival rate after liver transplantation has greatly improved. However, complications such as infection and rejection remain major causes of mortality and morbidity. The fungal infections are associated with high mortality rates, despite having a relatively lower incidence, compared with bacterial and viral infections. Difficulty in establishing an early diagnosis, lack of effective therapy, difficult management of certain antifungal agent, limited data for antifungal prophylaxis presents remaining problems.3) We report our experience with one case of syatemic candidemia after orthotopic liver transplantation.
Candidemia* ; Early Diagnosis ; Incidence ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Mortality ; Survival Rate

BACKGROUND: The timing of tracheal extubation in patients undergoing major intraoperative procedures is controversial. Immediate postoperative tracheal extubation after liver transplantation was not popularized. But in these days, early tracheal extubation has been safely performed in certain cases and routine use of mechanical ventilation is being questioned. We performed preliminary study of our 25 liver transplantation cases to evaluate factors affecting duration and indications of postoperative mechanical ventilation. METHODS: Our 25 cases were divided into two groups by periodic difference - early 13 cases (group 1) and late 12 cases (group 2). We evaluated preoperative UNOS (united network for organ sharing) scale, intraoperative transfusion and vasopressor requirement, postoperative multiple organ complications which would have influence upon tracheal extubation. RESULTS: We found great difference between two groups in duration of mechanical ventilation (Group 1: 94.4+/-7.12 hrs, Group 2: 36.1+/-28.3 hrs) and ICU stay (Group 1: 22.8+/-8.3 days, Group 2: 11.8+/-5.5 days). CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that early tracheal extubation in selected liver transplantation cases was safe and effective because it could shorten duration of ICU stay and reduce postoperative mortality. But more experience and knowledge may be needed to get more ideal guidelines for postoperative mechanical ventilation.
Airway Extubation* ; Humans ; Liver Transplantation* ; Liver* ; Mortality ; Respiration, Artificial

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis associated with multilineage cytopenias leading to serious morbidity or mortality, and the additional risk of leukemic transformation. The management of patients with MDS can be very complex and varies according to both the clinical manifestations in individual patients as well as the presence of complicating medical conditions. However, therapeutic dilemmas still exist for MDS due to the multifactorial pathogenetic features of the disease, its heterogeneous stages, and the elderly patient population. For these reasons, proper guidelines for management are necessary. This review describes the proper diagnosis for MDS, decision-making approaches for optimal therapeutic options that are based on a consideration of patient clinical factors and risk-based prognostic categories, and the use of recently available biospecific drugs such as hypomethylating agents that are potentially capable of abrogating the abnormalities associated with MDS. Proper indications and methods for transplantation, response criteria, management for iron overload for highly transfused patients and specific considerations for MDS in childhood are also described. All of these topics were discussed at the third symposium of AML/MDS working party on 3 March, 2007.
Aged ; Diagnosis ; Hematopoiesis ; Humans ; Iron Overload ; Mortality ; Myelodysplastic Syndromes* ; Transplantation

Anticoagulants ; therapeutic use ; Child ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; methods ; mortality ; Prognosis

Child ; Humans ; Kidney Transplantation ; mortality ; Living Donors ; Renal Dialysis

China ; Humans ; Liver Transplantation ; methods ; mortality ; trends ; Survival Rate ; trends

Heart transplantation is now regarded as the treatment of choice for end-stage heart failure. To improve long-term results of the heart transplantation, we analyzed causes of death relative to time after transplantation. A total of 201 consecutive patients, 154 (76.6%) males, aged > or = 17 yr underwent heart transplantation between November 1992 and December 2008. Mean ages of recipients and donors were 42.8 +/- 12.4 and 29.8 +/- 9.6 yr, respectively. The bicaval anastomosis technique was used since 1999. Mean follow up duration was 6.5 +/- 4.4 yr. Two patients (1%) died in-hospital due to sepsis caused by infection. Late death occurred in 39 patients (19.4%) with the most common cause being sepsis due to infection. The 1-, 5-, and 10-yr survival rates in these patients were 95.5% +/- 1.5%, 86.9% +/- 2.6%, and 73.5% +/- 4.1%, respectively. The surgical results of heart transplantation in adults were excellent, with late mortality due primarily to infection, malignancy, and rejection. Cardiac deaths related to cardiac allograft vasculopathy were very rare.
Adult ; Anastomosis, Surgical/methods ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Graft Rejection/mortality ; Heart Transplantation/*mortality ; Humans ; Immunosuppression/methods ; Infection/mortality ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms/mortality ; Postoperative Complications/mortality/surgery ; Survival Rate ; Transplantation/*mortality ; Treatment Outcome