Conditions: Kidney Transplant
Keywords: ABO incompatibility living donor kidney transplant kidney transplant ABO blood type incompatible
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 6
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to try to determine if the drug eculizumab can help prevent antibody-mediated rejection in patients undergoing a kidney transplant from a living donor with a different blood type than their own.

Detailed description:
Kidney transplantation is considered the best therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease. In some instances, the only suitable living kidney donor is ABO blood group incompatible. This usually presents a barrier to successful transplantation because most recipients have circulating serum antibodies that bind to incompatible blood groups that will bind and damage the kidney allograft early after transplantation. Fortunately, over the past decade, we and others have developed protocols involving the pretransplant removal of anti-blood group antibodies using multiple plasmapheresis treatments that allow for the successful transplantation of ABOi LDKTx. Thus, this therapy enables patients to receive a living donor with its advantages rather than having to wait \>5 years for a deceased donor kidney.

Arms:
arm 1: Eculizumab was given on Day 0, day 1, and weekly for the first four weeks after transplant.

Interventions: intervention 1: Eculizumab
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Subjects received eculizumab intravenously at the time of transplant, on the day after transplant, then weekly for four weeks. At four weeks post transplant, anti-blood group antibody levels were determined. Subjects may have potentially received eculizumab every two weeks for one year depending on antibody levels.

Protocol document: