NDT Advance Access originally published online on January 26, 2009
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation 2009 24(5):1369-1370; doi:10.1093/ndt/gfn779
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Women with Alport syndrome: risks and rewards of kidney donation*
Division of Pediatric Nephrology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Clifford E. Kashtan, University of Minnesota Medical School, MMC 491, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Tel: +1-612-626-2922; Fax: +1-612-626-2791; E-mail: kasht001@umn.edu
Keywords: Alport syndrome; kidney donation; kidney transplantation
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
Insights gained during the last 30 years of research in Alport syndrome have influenced the way potential related kidney donors for Alport patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are assessed. Awareness of Alport syndrome among clinicians and families has increased greatly, so the disease is more likely to be suspected in patients with haematuria and in kindreds with renal disease. Widespread application of electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry and molecular genetics has enhanced diagnostic accuracy, with the result that we are more likely to know which patients and families truly have Alport syndrome. We have learned that Alport syndrome is primarily an X-linked disorder (
80% of families) and that only