Jun 7, 2013 | Your Health
One third of people in need of a kidney transplant will be blood type incompatible with their donor and even more will be incompatible because of harmful antibodies against their donor. Yet sometimes, one person’s incompatibility can be another’s blessing in disguise.
Take for example Gina Dosso and her sister Maria Dosso. Gina had kidney failure and was nearing dialysis. Her sister Maria decided that she would like to donate a kidney to her. Unfortunately, even though they were related, Gina’s blood had harmful antibodies that would have caused her body to reject Maria’s kidney. In fact, Gina’s blood had harmful antibodies to greater than 80% of the population making it very difficult to find her any compatible donor. But rather than give up, with the help of the Mount Sinai Kidney Transplant team, they were enlisted into the National Kidney Registry, an organization that helps incompatible people find other incompatible people to perform a kidney “swap” with.
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Nephrology, Primary Care, Transplant
We often refer to hypertension (high blood pressure) as a “silent disease” because it does not always cause symptoms, and could go unchecked for years.
Diagnosing High Blood Pressure
When you get your blood pressure checked at your medical provider’s office, hypertension is diagnosed with two blood pressure readings of 140/90 or higher.
• The first (top) number is the systolic pressure inside your arteries when your heart is contracting.
• The second (bottom) number is the diastolic pressure when your arteries are relaxed.
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Inside, Your Health
When former New York Jets running back Dennis Bligen was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in 2011, and told by doctors that he needed a new kidney, the news came as a shock.
For his long-time friend, Jill Christensen—who worked with him in the athletics department at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y.—the news was a call to action. “I just knew I would get tested [to become a donor],” she says. But it turned out that Ms. Christensen’s kidneys were not an appropriate match.
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