Article No. 382
29 September 2020
In just over three weeks it will be Kidney Week 2020. Kidney Week is the American Society of Nephrologists’ (ASN) annual conference. Not surprisingly in this COVID 19 year, it will be a virtual conference with education classes and research presentations done on line.
Or “Reimagined” as ASN prefers to promote it.
aHUS Global Action has had a quick look to see if aHUS/TMA will feature in the conference programmes and found something happening on each day of the conference.
On Thursday 22nd October (10am to Noon EDT) – Clinical Practice Sessions
Thrombotic Microangiopathy in 2020: Complement at the Forefront
The Moderators of this session are Doctor Anuja Java and Professor Cynthia C Nast. Anuja’s research on COVID 19 Infection TMA recently featured in a Global Action blog in August (Article 370 ), and Cynthia is a renal pathologist from Cedars Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles. She recently contacted Global Action about one of our word clouds. So both are well known to us.
The speakers will be :
Dr Lilian M P Palma. “Thombotic Microangiopathies: New Methodologies to Unravel Underlying Mechanisms” Lilian from San Paulo, Brazil had an article about TMA published on aHUS Awareness Day;
Dr Marina Noris . “Hereditability and Dysregulation of the Complement System: Functional Assays and Genetic Testing”. Marina has featured on this website several times and aHUS Global Action representatives met with her in Bergamo in 2018 ( see HERE) ;
Dr John Sperati. “Practical Approach to Managing Thrombotic Microangiopathies in 2020″, John is less known to Global Action but his work at John Hopkins University clearly shows an interest in aHUS ( click HERE)
Dr Joshua M Thurman. “Agents in the Pipeline for Treating Complement Disorders”. Joshua has a considerable research publication record on TMA, and was seen by the aHUS alliance giving a similar talk at Kidney Week 2015. Hopefully more of them are further “down the pike” than then.
On Friday 23 October 2020 ( 13.00 to 14,00 EDT) Educational Symposium
Novel Insights into the Diagnostics and Management of Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome.
Two talks, first from Dr Bradley P Dixon on “Pathogenisis and Diagnosis of aHUS” and then from Dr Eric Rondeau “ Approach to the Treatment of aHUS”. Bradley is becoming well known to Global Action for his work on aHUS research in Colorado, and his podcasts on topics aHUS/TMA for Machaon Diagnostics. Eric from France is very well know to us the French National Coordinator on the Global aHUS Registry. His recent publication on aHUS Pregnancy also comes to mind.
On Saturday 24 October 2020 Basic /Clinical Science Sessions 10.00 to Noon EDT
C3 Glomerulopathy and aHUS: From Diagnosis to Transplantation
The moderators for session are Dr Kerstin U. Amann and Dr Vineeta Kumar.
Dr Vivette D D’Agati . “The Histopathologic Spectrum of C3 Glomerulopathies and aHUS”. Vivette is Renal Pathologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Prof Neil Sherrin. “Complement Abnormalities and Rational Diagnostic in C3 Glomerulopathy and aHUS” Neil is a transplant surgeon from the UK and is leading the Stopping Eculizumab Treatment Safely (SETS) trial at the National aHUS Centre in England.
Prof Peter F Zipfel . “How to Inhibit Complement in Patients With C3 Glomerulopathy aHUS”. Peter has been researching aHUS for some time and was a speaker at the German Patient Day 2020 webinar, which was reported on in a recent Global Action article (No. 350)
Dr Carla Nester “Treating Patients with C3 Glomerulopathy and aHUS, Including the Kidney Transplant Candidate” Carla is very known to US aHUS patients for her work at the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa and her talks at the aHUS Patients Conference there every two years.
So aHUS is still very much a topic of interest among so many kidney diseases which will be talked about during Kidney Week. The challenges of recognising and defining its place within the spectrum of TMAs being still evident. The awareness that the presentations will bring will help aHUS patients present and future. As will any research poster abstracts about aHUS. If there are any, they will be on line from 9 October. Click here and enter “aHUS” or “TMA” in Search.
