SOTA 05: Antibody-Mediated Rejection (AMR). The Changing Face of Rejection in Heart Transplantation
Jon A. Kobashigawa, M.D.
Jon Kobashigawa, MD, is Associate Director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Director of Advanced Heart Disease and Director of the Heart Transplant Program at Cedars-Sinai. In addition, he holds the DSL/Thomas D. Gordon Chair in Heart Transplantation Medicine. Dr. Jon Kobashigawa is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the heart transplant field. He is the past President of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He was also the Program Chairman for the 2000 International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation Scientific Meetings in Osaka, Japan. Dr Kobashigawa also served as Chairman of the American College of Cardiology Committee on Heart Failure and Transplantation. As a member of the National United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Thoracic Committee from 2000 – 2002, Dr. Kobashigawa participated in shaping national policies on heart transplant priority listing, alternative heart transplant waiting lists, and changes in the UNOS lung allocation policy
Dr. Kobashigawa has published over 200 peer reviewed articles, chapters and monographs in the field of heart transplantation and has chaired several multi-center heart transplant studies. In April 2008, Dr Kobashigawa organized and chaired the International Consensus Conference on Sensitization in Patients Awaiting Heart Transplantation which is one of the foremost issues limiting heart transplantation.This past April 2010, Dr Kobashigawa organized and chaired another International Consensus Conference on Antibody-Mediated Rejection in Heart Transplant Patients. Dr. Kobashigawa lectures on cardiac transplantation at universities around the world, and works with young investigators in the Cardiology Fellowship Core Curriculum, where he also has an important role as a discussant of clinical implications of basic research.
Abdallah Kfoury
Dr. Kfoury is currently the Medical Director of the U.T.A.H. Cardiac Transplant Program and Heart Failure Prevention & Treatment Program at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has served on the Thoracic Organ Transplantation Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing between 1996 and 1998, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Intermountain Donor Services in Salt Lake City. His clinical interests include advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. His primary research focus is on antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) in cardiac allografts. The U.T.A.H. Cardiac Program has routinely surveilled for AMR in the first 3 months post-transplant for over 25 years. As a result, the program has a massive pathology database of over 35,000 endomyocardial biopsies from roughly 1100 recipients. Among over 250 publications, the program was the first to publish a comprehensive report on cardiac AMR back in 1989, as well as over 20 related peer-reviewed articles on AMR since then. These contributions were instrumental in understanding the pathology and clinical course of cardiac AMR, as well as providing a roadmap for ongoing efforts to update its defining criteria.
Dr. Kfoury is an active member of the The Transplantation Society, American Society of Transplantation, and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.
Andreas Zuckermann
Bio coming soon