Belatacept, an investigational selective costimulation blocker, did not appear to be inferior to cyclosporine as a means of preventing acute rejection after renal transplantation. Belatacept may preserve the glomerular filtration rate and reduce the rate of chronic allograft nephropathy.

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The clinical profile of belatacept in kidney transplant recipients was evaluated to determine if earlier results in the BENEFIT study were sustained at 3 years. BENEFIT is a randomized 3 year, phase III study in adults receiving a kidney transplant from a living or standard criteria deceased donor. Patients were randomized to a more ( Belatacept-treated patients maintained a high rate of patient and graft survival that was comparable to cyclosporine-treated patients, despite an early increased occurrence of acute rejection and PTLD.

There is no evidence that one treatment was superior to the other or could improve the outcome reported with ICT followed by RT alone (French Groupe Oncologie Radiothérapie Tête et Cou [GORTEC] 2000-01 trial [Induction CT by Cisplatin, 5FU With or Without Docetaxel in Patients With T3 and T4 Larynx and Hypopharynx Carcinoma]). The protocol that can best compare with RT alone after ICT is still to be determined.

SummaryBackground and objectives Renal infarction is an arterial vascular event that may cause irreversible damage to kidney tissues. This study describes the clinical characteristics of patients with renal infarction according to underlying mechanism of vascular injury.Design, setting, participants, & measurements This study retrospectively identified 94 patients with renal infarction diagnosed between 1989 and 2011 with the aim of highlighting potential correlations between demographic, clinical, and biologic characteristics and the etiology of renal infarction. Four groups were identified: renal infarction of cardiac origin (cardiac group, n=23), renal infarction associated with renal artery injury (renal injury group, n=29), renal infarction associated with hypercoagulability disorders (hypercoagulable group, n=15), and apparently idiopathic renal infarction (idiopathic group, n=27).Results Clinical symptoms included abdominal and/or flank pain in 96.8% of cases; 46 patients had uncontrolled hypertension at diagnosis. Laboratory findings included increase of lactate dehydrogenase level (90.5%), increase in C-reactive protein level (77.6%), and renal impairment (40.4%). Compared with renal injury group patients, this study found that cardiac group patients were older (relative risk for 1 year increase=1.21, P=0.001) and displayed a lower diastolic BP (relative risk per 1 mmHg=0.94, P=0.05). Patients in the hypercoagulable group had a significantly lower diastolic BP (relative risk=0.86, P=0.005). Patients in the idiopathic group were older (relative risk=1.13, P=0.01) and less frequently men (relative risk=0.11, P=0.02). Seven patients required hemodialysis at the first evaluation, and zero patients died during the first 30 days.Conclusions This study suggests that the clinical and biologic characteristics of patients can provide valuable information about the causal mechanism involved in renal infarction occurrence.