DALLAS, March 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians on staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas performed their first islet cell transplant to treat a patient with Type I diabetes. Jennifer Shannon, a 26-year-old, 4th grade teacher from Saginaw, Texas, received her transplant on Saturday, March 12. Shannon received nearly 300,000 islet cells during her infusion. The procedure started at 8:40 p.m. and ended at 9:50 p.m. The islet cell infusion took 12 minutes, starting at 9:19 p.m. ending at 9:31 p.m. Shannon was discharged from Baylor Dallas the next day.
“Jennifer has started producing her own insulin for the first time in 20 years,” said Marlon Levy, M.D., medical director of the islet cell transplant program, Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. “She still requires low doses of insulin each day, but her blood sugar control has improved. We expect Jennifer to have another infusion of islet cells in the next few weeks.”
Dr. Levy says the goal of the islet cell research at Baylor Dallas is to achieve normal blood sugar-levels in patients with diabetes, which would ultimately prevent the disease’s major complications, such as blindness, heart disease and kidney damage.
Baylor received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to begin a research study of islet cell transplantation in July 2004. Fifteen patients, both men and women, between the ages of 18 and 65 will be enrolled in the study.
After the pancreas was surgically recovered from the deceased donor, it was taken to the University of Miami School of Medicine. There, scientists separated the islet cells from the donor pancreas, then cultured the islet cells to ensure the viability of the cells. On March 12, the islet cells were flown from Miami to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. At that time, Baylor’s islet cell specialists performed final testing and prepared the cells for infusion into Shannon.
The islet cell transplant was performed in Baylor’s interventional radiology procedure room. Interventional radiologists on staff at Baylor Dallas used ultrasound technology to inject the islet cells into Shannon’s portal vein, which branches out to the liver.
Shannon went from the procedure directly to a patient floor, where she had blood taken every few hours. Shannon has come to Baylor Dallas everyday throughout this week to have her blood drawn, allowing physicians to monitor her blood sugar and immunosuppressant levels.
“To keep her body from rejecting the islet cells, Jennifer will take immunosuppressant medication daily for the rest of her life. She has not experienced any side effects from this medication,” added Levy.
Nationwide, more than one million people have Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes. Diabetes -- the fifth deadliest disease in the United States -- affects the body’s ability to produce or respond to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (blood sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy.
People with Type 1 diabetes are at increased risk for many serious complications, including heart disease, blindness, nerve damage and kidney damage. From 10 to 21 percent of all people with diabetes have kidney disease (diabetic nephropathy). In diabetic nephropathy, blood vessels in the kidneys that filter wastes, chemicals and excess water from the blood become damaged. Eventually, the damaged filters are destroyed, putting more stress on the remaining filters and eventually causing them to become damaged. When the entire filtration system breaks down, the kidneys fail to function, resulting in end-stage renal disease.
Approximately 43 percent of new cases of end-stage renal disease are attributed to diabetes. To survive with end-stage renal disease, patients require dialysis or a kidney transplant. Each year, nearly 130,000 people receive kidney transplants as a result of the diabetes.
In addition to potentially severe medical complications, diabetes has significant economic ramifications. The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion, or one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in the United States.
Baylor’s transplant program was established in 1983. Since its inception, physicians have performed more than 7,000 solid organ transplants, including liver, kidney, pancreas, heart and lung, as well as blood and marrow transplants. According to the United Network of Organ Sharing, Baylor’s transplant survival rates exceed the national standard. For more information about the Baylor Regional Transplant Institute, which comprises transplant programs at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth, visit http://www.baylorhealth.com/ .
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas
CONTACT: Wendy Walker of Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas,+1-214-820-4581, or wendyw@baylorhealth.edu
Web site: http://www.baylorhealth.com/