The XV. Banff conference for allograft pathology was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics in Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and focused on refining recent updates to the classification, advances from the Banff working groups, and standardization of molecular diagnostics. 

Accurate risk stratification of early heart transplant failure is required to avoid futile transplants and rationalize donor selection. We aimed to evaluate the statistical performance of existing risk scores on a contemporary cohort of heart transplant recipients.

After an exhaustive search, we identified 16 relevant risk scores. From the UNOS database, we selected all first noncombined adult heart transplants performed between 2014 and 2017 for validation. The primary endpoint was death or retransplant during the first year posttransplant.

​For all scores, we analyzed their association with outcomes, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and discrimination (concordance index and overlap of individual scores). The cohort included 9396 patients. All scores were significantly associated with the primary outcome (P < .001 for all scores). Their likelihood ratios, both negative and positive, were poor. The discriminative performance of all scores was limited, with concordance index ranging from 0.544 to 0.646 (median 0.594) and an important overlap of individual scores between patients with or without the primary endpoint. Subgroup analyses revealed important variation in discrimination according to donor age, recipient age, and the type of assist device used at transplant.

Our findings raise concerns about the use of currently available scores in the clinical field.

One of the most common reasons for long-term graft failure and patient death is an accelerated form of coronary artery disease called cardiac allograft vasculopathy. It is a frequent complication that affects up to half of patients within 10 years following heart transplantation. Yet, until now, little has been known about the different evolutive profiles of cardiac allograft vasculopathy and their risk factors.

The team of the Paris Transplant Group has been awarded at the ESOT 2019 congress in Copenhagen for its many contribution in the field of transplantation. 

The Prize is given to a single Institution having submitted at least 5 abstracts for the event and granted with the best score. The Paris Transplant Group is very pleased to won this European award twice in a row. 

Check out the contribution submitted by the Group on the ESOT website: esotcongress.org.

Using a new approach based on validated analytical methods and computer simulations, this work revealed that French transplant centres are much more likely to transplant kidneys from older donors than their American counterparts, and that this effectively increases the number of patients transplanted. 

During the event, a specific symposium is held for the EU Train-ESOT that highlights the methodological and statistical risks clinical researchers can face in the field of transplantation. Carmen Lefaucheur, Olivier Aubert, Alexandre Loupy, Yassine Bouatou, Dany Anglicheau and Christophe Legendre are invited to speak during this event to present the future of patient care in transplantation.
Check the poster submitted by Marc Raynaud here. 

You can follow the event through social media with the hashtag #ESOT2019 and @ParisTxGroup.

New research conducted by the Paris Translational Research Center for Organ Transplantation team could help clinicians determine which patients will have a disease that usually occurs after a kidney transplant and which are at high risk of transplant failure. The results are published today in the prestigious Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

Transplant glomerulopathy was first described and characterized 50 years ago. It is a disease associated with the loss of a kidney transplant and common after a transplant. It affects the functional units (i. e. glomeruli) of the transplanted kidney. There is currently no treatment for this heterogeneous disease.

Abstract submissions are now open for oral and poster presentations. The deadline for the submission is the 8th of April.

During the meeting, you will be able to meet more than 1 200 professionals in HLA and the transplant field. And discover all the latest updates in immunogenetics and transplant immunology.

The BANFF Foundation for Allograft Pathology is a non-profit foundation, established in 2013. BANFF aims to further the development of the international BANFF Classification of Allograft Pathology, as well as publicize it. They also aspire to ease collaborative research in order to improve the care of transplant patient.

ASHI was founded in 1974, it is a non-profit international organization of clinical and research professionals. ASHI aims to advance the science and application of histocompatibility and immunogenetics. They also want to provide a forum for the exchange of information among scientists.

This review focuses on current standards for the management of antibody-mediated rejection in transplant recipients and identifies future directions for improving diagnostics and moving toward tailored therapeutics. Such advances require the development of pathogenesis-based approaches that combine precise characterization of the biologic properties of antibodies, noninvasive biomarkers, and allograft gene-expression profiling, which will set the stage for bringing antibody-mediated rejection into the era of precision medicine.

​The Lung session of the 2017 14th Banff Foundation for Allograft Pathology Conference, Barcelona focused on the multiple aspects of antibody-mediated rejec-tion (AMR) in lung transplantation.

​Multidimensional approaches for AMR diagnosis, including classification, histological and immunohistochemical analysis, and donor- specific antibody (DSA) characterization with their current strengths and limitations were reviewed in view of recent research.

The group also discussed the role of tissue gene expression analysis in the context of unmet needs in lung transplantation. The current best practice for monitoring of AMR and the therapeutic approach are summarized and highlighted in this report.

The working group reached consensus of the major gaps in current knowledge and focused on the unanswered questions regard-ing pulmonary AMR. An important outcome of the meeting was agreement on the need for future collaborative research projects to address these gaps in the field of lung transplantation.

​REVISED DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR CHRONIC ACTIVE T CELL–MEDIATED REJECTION, ANTIBODY‐MEDIATED REJECTION, AND PROSPECTS FOR INTEGRATIVE ENDPOINTS FOR NEXT‐GENERATION CLINICAL TRIALS

​The kidney sessions of the 2017 Banff Conference focused on 2 areas: clinical implications of inflammation in areas of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (i-IFTA) and its relationship to T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), and the continued evolution of molecular diagnostics, particularly in the diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR). In confirmation of previous studies, it was independently demonstrated by 2 groups that i-IFTA is associated with reduced graft survival. Furthermore, these groups presented that i-IFTA, particularly when involving >25% of sclerotic cortex in association with tubulitis, is often a sequela of acute TCMR in association with underimmunosuppression. The classification was thus revised to include moderate i-IFTA plus moderate or severe tubulitis as diagnostic of chronic active TCMR. Other studies demonstrated that certain molecular classifiers improve diagnosis of ABMR beyond what is possible with histology, C4d, and detection of donor-specific antibodies (DSAs) and that both C4d and validated molecular assays can serve as potential alternatives and/or complements to DSAs in the diagnosis of ABMR. The Banff ABMR criteria are thus updated to include these alternatives. Finally, the present report paves the way for the Banff scheme to be part of an integrative approach for defining surrogate endpoints in next-generation clinical trials.