Racial discrimination exists in kidney transplants too, claims Indian-origin researcher

WASHINGTON - Racial discrimination exists even when it comes to kidney transplant-survival rates of transplant recipients is jeopardised if the donor belongs to a different race, a study by an Indian-origin researcher has found.

Dr. Anita Patel, transplant nephrologist at Henry Ford Hospital Transplant Institute and lead author of the study, said that people who receive kidney from a donor of a different race are more at risk than those receiving the organ within the same race.

“We found that transplant between races had better outcomes than transplant across races. It is important to remember that the statistical difference in this observation is greatly outweighed by the life-giving benefits that recipients get from transplantation,” said Patel.

Physicians used data from the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) of more than 158,000 recipient patients between 1995 and 2008, to analyse the effect of donor/recipient race disparity on patient survival.

By regression analysis, the non-black recipients who received a kidney from black donors had a significant lower survival rate compared to those who received a kidney from a non-black donor (hazard ratio 1.111, p=0.014) after adjusting for all known variables.

“Hepatitis C infection in the donor or recipient was seen as a significant risk factor for mortality,” said Patel.he study has been presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego. (ANI)