At this year's Liver Meeting, the 69th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, several new concepts emerged, including novel treatment approaches to viral hepatitis that promise to alter clinical practice in the near future.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)
Impact of Direct-acting Antiviral Therapy on Donor Organ Availability and Outcome
Donor organ availability continues to limit the number of liver, kidney, and heart transplants performed in the United States. In the past, organs from HCV–infected donors were discarded. This practice had a significant impact. For example, although the prevalence of heart failure rose over the past decade, the number of annual heart transplants has remained unchanged. Thus, HCV-positive hearts that meet standard criteria for cardiac donation are an underutilized resource.
With the rising incidence of HCV infection and the growing number of HCV-positive organ donors, there is a time-sensitive and critical need to document both the efficacy and logistics surrounding successful use of HCV-positive organs for transplantation.
Bethea and colleagues[1] set out to determine whether the preemptive administration of pangenotypic direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy could prevent the development of chronic HCV infection in HCV-negative cardiac transplant recipients receiving HCV-infected donor hearts.[1]In this single-center, proof-of-concept trial, wait-listed patients who expressed a willingness to accept an HCV-positive donor were enrolled.
Medscape Gastroenterology © 2018 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Viral Hepatitis: Five Highlights From the Liver Meeting - Medscape - Nov 29, 2018.
Hepatitis C
Chronic Hepatitis C Pathology
Cutaneous Manifestations of Hepatitis C
COMMENTARY
Viral Hepatitis: Five Highlights From the Liver Meeting
William F. Balistreri, MD
DisclosuresNovember 29, 2018
At this year's Liver Meeting, the 69th annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, several new concepts emerged, including novel treatment approaches to viral hepatitis that promise to alter clinical practice in the near future.
Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)
Impact of Direct-acting Antiviral Therapy on Donor Organ Availability and Outcome
Donor organ availability continues to limit the number of liver, kidney, and heart transplants performed in the United States. In the past, organs from HCV–infected donors were discarded. This practice had a significant impact. For example, although the prevalence of heart failure rose over the past decade, the number of annual heart transplants has remained unchanged. Thus, HCV-positive hearts that meet standard criteria for cardiac donation are an underutilized resource.
With the rising incidence of HCV infection and the growing number of HCV-positive organ donors, there is a time-sensitive and critical need to document both the efficacy and logistics surrounding successful use of HCV-positive organs for transplantation.
Bethea and colleagues[1] set out to determine whether the preemptive administration of pangenotypic direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy could prevent the development of chronic HCV infection in HCV-negative cardiac transplant recipients receiving HCV-infected donor hearts.[1]In this single-center, proof-of-concept trial, wait-listed patients who expressed a willingness to accept an HCV-positive donor were enrolled.
Medscape Gastroenterology © 2018 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Viral Hepatitis: Five Highlights From the Liver Meeting - Medscape - Nov 29, 2018.
Tables
References
Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Author
William F. Balistreri, MD
Department of Hepatology & Nutrition, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Disclosure: William F. Balistreri, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.