Red herrings in crossmatching kidneys for transplant.

Crossmatching of prospective renal transplant donors against recipients is a mandatory component of the transplant workup, being performed for over 40 years now. Allografting patients with human leukocyte antigens which are recognized by preformed antibodies constitutes the main cause of hyperacute or acute rejections. The existence of these donor-specific anti-human leukocyte antigen antibodies (DSAs) is regarded as a contraindication for graft trans-plantation, both cadaveric and live kidney. We present two unusual cases in which both complement-dependent cytotoxicity crossmatch and DSA by Luminex were falsely positive due to autoimmune and infectious causes, but single-antigen bead assay showed these antibodies to be against nondonor antigens. After treating their basic disease, thought to be responsible for false-positive DSA, these patients became DSA negative and underwent transplantation with an uneventful posttransplant period. Our aim through these examples is to highlight the problem of false-positive crossmatch in potential renal allograft transplant recipients. Further, we propose antigenic determination of donor-specific antibodies in such patients where we suspect the immune system to be chronically activated to pick up false-positive cases and therefore increase the donor pool without compromising the transplant outcome.

Early versus late institution of plasma exchange therapy in pregnancy induced thrombotic microangiopathy and its effects on clinical outcomes-A case series.

PURPOSE: To look for incidence of pregnancy associated TMA, clinical presentation and impact of early diagnosis and institution of plasma exchange on overall renal outcomes METHODS: -This is a retrospective study among all female patients who presented with acute kidney injury post pregnancy between October 2002 to April 2016 in department of nephrology in a tertiary care hospital in northern India and diagnosed as pregnancy induced TMA. The patient were assessed for duration of onset of renal failure to time of diagnosis of TMA, role of modality of treatment ie plasmpaharesis to outcome. These patients were assessed for complete, partial or no recovery in renal functions at 60 days after admission. RESULTS: Patients whose time of onset of renal failure to a correct diagnosis of TMA was ≤15 days and age less than 30 years was also associated with good prognosis. The patients who received plasma exchange and that to within 72 h of admission had more chances of recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Early diagnosis of disease and early institution of plasma exchange therapy improves renal outcomes in postpartum TMA.