Each year over 50,000 patients undergo life-saving kidney,
liver, or heart and lung transplant surgery. Unfortunately,
organ transplantation remains a significant challenge because of
the shortage of organ donors and differences in tissue type
between donor and recipient that can cause rejection of the
donor organ by the recipient's immune system. If this rejection
reaction is not successfully treated through the administration
of immunosuppressive drugs, the donor organ is normally
destroyed within a short period of time. EUREKA project E! 2674
MIDAS (Medical Diagnostics Applied to Surgery) has developed a
new test that can significantly improve graft survival by
finding a more accurate organ match. "Usually organs are matched
to recipients by comparing tissue types and selecting those
pairings with the smallest genetic mismatch. Using this method
alone, however, ignores sensitisation which can turn a slight
mismatch into an unacceptably high risk," explains Dr Nikolai
Schwabe, CEO of UK lead partner ProImmu