Social network interventions to reduce race disparities in living kidney donation: Design and rationale of the friends and family of kidney transplant patients study (FFKTPS).

INTRODUCTION: Racial/ethnic disparities in living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) are a persistent challenge. Although nearly all directed donations are from members of patients' social networks, little is known about which social network members take steps toward living kidney donation, which do not, and what mechanisms contribute to racial/ethnic LDKT disparities. METHODS: We describe the design and rationale of the Friends and Family of Kidney Transplant Patients Study, a factorial experimental fielding two interventions designed to promote LKD discussions. Participants are kidney transplant candidates at two centers who are interviewed and delivered an intervention by trained center research coordinators. The search intervention advises patients on which social network members are most likely to be LKD contraindication-free; the script intervention advises patients on how to initiate effective LKD discussions. Participants are randomized into four conditions: no intervention, search only, script only, or both search and script. Patients also complete a survey and optionally provide social network member contact information so they can be surveyed directly. This study will seek to enroll 200 transplant candidates. The primary outcome is LDKT receipt. Secondary outcomes include live donor screening and medical evaluations and outcomes. Tertiary outcomes include LDKT self-efficacy, concerns, knowledge, and willingness, measured before and after the interventions. CONCLUSION: This study will assess the effectiveness of two interventions to promote LKD and ameliorate Black-White disparities. It will also collect unprecedented information on transplant candidates' social network members, enabling future work to address network member structural barriers to LKD.

Eplet mismatch scores and de novo donor-specific antibody development in simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation.

Antibody-mediated rejection is the principal cause of allotransplant graft failure. Available studies differ on the impact of de novo donor specific antibody (dnDSA) in pancreas transplants but are limited by patient sample size and sera sample collection. High-resolution HLA incompatibility scoring algorithms are able to more accurately predict dnDSA development. We hypothesized that HLA incompatibility scores as determined by the HLA-Matchmaker, HLA-EMMA, and PIRCHE-II algorithms would serve as a predictor of de novo donor specific antibody (dnDSA) development and clarify the role dnDSA as detrimental to simultaneous pancreas-kidney graft survival. Our results show that female sex and race were significantly associated with dnDSA development and dnDSA development resulted in worse kidney and pancreas graft survival. The majority of individuals who developed dnDSA (88%), developed anti-HLA-DQ antibody in some combination with anti-HLA class I or -DR. A multivariate analysis of the incompatibility scores showed that both HLA-Matchmaker and PIRCHE-II scores predicted anti-DQ dnDSA development. An optimal cutoff threshold for incompatibility matching was obtained for these scores and demonstrated statistical significance when predicting freedom from anti-DQ DSA development. In conclusion, increased scores from high-resolution HLA matching predict dnDSA development, and dnDSA is associated with antibody-mediated rejection and worse pancreas and kidney graft outcomes.