The dermatological complications of immunosuppressive therapy are common in RTR and can significantly impair QoL in certain individuals. Visible, infectious and cosmetic skin problems had most impact on QoL while a history of skin cancer had a lesser impact. Early dermatological referral and careful choice of immunosuppression may enhance the QoL, particularly in young and female RTR.

To explore the incidence of thin mem-

The left atrial appendage (LAA) has a key role in the embolic complications of atrial fibrillation (AF). It has been studied extensively, from recent interest in the thrombotic implications of various LAA morphologies to LAA occlusion and ablation. We collected eleven post-mortem LAA samples for visual analysis, two were not included due to poor sample quality. On examination of the nine remaining samples, several common patterns of pectinate muscle orientation were noted. The LAA samples were noted to have a smooth circumferential neck of muscular tissue giving rise to a dominant singular smooth trunk of papillary muscle in 6 cases and two trunks in 3 cases. These trunks were either shallow (5 samples) or more muscular and raised (4 samples). Shallow trunks tended to be wider than the raised trunks and may even be circumferential (2 samples). The main trunk arborized to give off papillary muscle branches down to third or fourth order branches. The samples were visually assessed for the percentage of smooth papillary muscle versus non-papillary recesses and were found to have ≤50% smooth muscle in 3 samples, 50-75% in 3 samples and >75% in 3 samples. We performed histological analysis of further LAA samples collected during cardiac surgery in a parallel study. We identified a distinct pattern of myocyte orientation from the neck, mid-section and apical section of the LAA demonstrating arborization of myocyte fibers with minimal communication in distal segments of the LAA. We feel that this information may help understanding of the issues surrounding LAA ablation strategies.

Aside from its ability to assess flow velocity within vessels, color Doppler and gray-scale sonography cannot distinguish perfused from non-perfused tissues. In this study we evaluated whether Perfluorooctylbromide (PFOB), a sonographic contrast agent given i.v., could aid sonography with this recognition. Partial renal infarction was produced by a 1 mm bead embolized in the right, the left, or both renal arteries of 20 normal rabbits. The sonographer, unaware of rabbit assignment, attempted to diagnose the infarct 24 hours later. All 20 rabbits were studied with gray-scale and color Doppler sonography, 10 before and after PFOB and 10 only after PFOB. Angiography and post-mortem examination were done for confirmation. Of the 20 kidneys evaluated before PFOB, the sonographer was unable to diagnose the 10 partial infarctions. Color Doppler identified five of the ten infarcted kidneys, but accurately localized the infarction in only two. Of the 40 kidneys evaluated after PFOB infusion, 20 scanned before and 20 scanned only after PFOB, all 20 partial infarctions were accurately diagnosed with both gray-scale and color Doppler. PFOB enhanced the echogenicity of perfused renal tissue allowing the easy detection of the unenhanced infarct. Because of the increased signal from vessels after PFOB, color Doppler displayed the entire vascular tree, allowing the detection of the truncated embolized branch. The ability of PFOB to enhance Doppler signals and the echogenicity of perfused tissues improved the diagnostic accuracy of sonography when used to detect partial renal infarctions.