Indigenous patients with autoimmune liver disease face worse outcomes

Indigenous patients with autoimmune liver disease face worse outcomesSearch for the cause and better treatments continues, researcher says First Nations, Métis and Inuit people with primary biliary cholangitis – a debilitating autoimmune liver disease – have more advanced symptoms at diagnosis and worse long-term outcomes than others in Canada, according to research from a nationwide monitoring project. “This autoimmune liver disease joins the…

Study shows promise for treating rare genetic liver disorder

Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) typically leads to liver failure

Study shows promise for treating rare genetic liver disorderIt was a Friday afternoon, and Alexandra was running errands when she looked down at her five-month-old son Armando and thought, “You know, he looks really yellow, like jaundice, like a newborn would look.” She took him to their family doctor that same day and, by Monday, was told to go straight to the Stollery…

Manufacturing human organs … with farm animals

Every year, 200 to 250 Canadians die while waiting for an organ transplant

Manufacturing human organs … with farm animalsIn an unprecedented surgery, a 57-year-old American with serious heart disease had a heart transplant with a genetically-modified pig’s heart on Jan. 7. Almost two weeks later, the patient is reportedly still doing well. This surgery was a first, performed by a team from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. It’s among the first…

ConnecTour Chronicles: A life-saving gift for our son-in-law

The average wait for a liver transplant in Canada is 287 days. Dax was one of the lucky ones – his wait was just a few weeks

ConnecTour Chronicles: A life-saving gift for our son-in-lawTroy Media publisher Doug Firby and Travel editor Lisa Monforton are part of a group of Canadians who call themselves ConnecTour. tarting in May in British Columbia and ending in October in Newfoundland, they hope to make an 8,000-km bicycle journey across the country, discovering how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped our lives and our…