-
Aug 29, 2007 6:15 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Study Predicting Risk Of Transplant Rejection
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
A new study that doctors are working on right here in Pittsburgh could help to save the lives of children who have transplant surgery.
Doctors say it can help to predict the risk of rejection of the organ after surgery, allowing them to get a head start on prescribing drugs to stop that process.
Experts say anti-rejection medicines are part of the equation after a transplant to keep patients healthy, but doctors are still trying to find the right balance.
"Where the drugs fail, they fail either because we're over-doing it, or we're under-doing it," says Dr. Rakesh Sindhi, of Children's Hospital.
Doctors say if too little medicine is used it could result in rejection, or if the dose is too high, it could result in cancer. To decipher the puzzle, transplant researchers at Children's Hospital say they are poring over genetic clues.
"We're trying to establish fingerprints, so-called genomic fingerprints, that will tell us that this person is going to be at risk for rejection," says Dr. Sindhi.
Researchers explain they are focusing on 'so-called polymorphisms,' or mistakes in DNA code.
"We can measure up to about, or characterize up to about a half-a-million of the 12 million known mutations, and we try to characterize them not just in children, but in the parents," adds Dr. Sindhi.
By sifting through these clues, they say they hope to understand which genes cause problems. That will ultimately help doctors personalize the medicine transplant patients rely on.
Dr. Sindhi says the information from this study should help ensure anti-rejection medicines are prescribed at the right dose, less for patients with a better tolerance for the organ, and more for those with a greater risk of rejection.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)