Racial dissimilarities may affect the Kidney transplant access; Research

Transplanted kidneyResearchers have found that black patients of kidney problem i.e. end stage renal disease (ESRD) had a 59% reduced rate of kidney transplant as compared to white patients in a southeastern Emory Transplant Center.

This research has been conducted by Rachel Patzer, PhD, of Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues, and published online in January 10 issue of the American Journal of Transplantation.

Researchers worked on 2291 patients at Emory transplant center as well as those from the United States Renal Data System and the United Network for Organ Sharing, from 2005 to 2007 followed through May 2010, and found “racial disparities” in access to transplant evaluation, referral, wait-listing and eventual transplant. “Of 2291 patients, 64.9% were black, the mean age was 49.4 years and 33.6% lived in poor neighborhoods.” Among them 57.3% were male and 16.1% were without any health insurance coverage.

Researchers have found that black patients constitute about 56% of the waiting list but only 44% of those got eventual transplantation. They have found the biggest inequalities in the time between diagnosis and referral, i.e. 283 days for blacks and 84 days for whites, and time spent on the waiting list, i.e. 727 days for blacks versus 374 days for whites. However, according to researchers at the national level blacks get equivalent rate of transplantation as whites.

According to researchers, since the study is based on single center, so it may not show wider issues of racial disparities. Moreover, there are unknown barriers to equivalent access to transplant in the center.

Reference:

R. E. Patzer, J. P. Perryman, J. D. Schrager, S. Pastan, S. Amaral, J. A. Gazmararian, M. Klein, N. Kutner, W. M. McClellan (2012). The Role of Race and Poverty on Steps to Kidney Transplantation in the Southeastern United States. American Journal of Transplantation, DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2011.03927.x

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