UNMC Physician Makes Key Presentation on Liver Cell
Infusion at Annual Meeting of Radiological Society of North America
A University of Nebraska Medical Center radiologist, William Culp, M.D.,
made a major presentation on liver cell transplantation at the 85th Scientific
Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
The meeting, which was held Nov. 28 to Dec. 3 in Chicago, was the largest
medical meeting in the world with more than 60,000 health care professionals
attending.
Out of more than 4,000 research abstracts submitted for the meeting,
Dr. Culp’s abstract was one of about 20 selected to be highlighted.
Dr. Culp reviewed his radiological experience in having done five liver
cell transplants in recent years. UNMC is one of only a few transplant
centers in the country to have performed this procedure.
The five patients included two adults and three children. Two patients
are still alive and three have died. The two surviving patients are
an infant boy born with a congenital liver defect who eventually received
a liver transplant and a 10-year-old girl with a genetic liver defect.
Both are doing well.
“Each time we do one of these procedures we gain experience and become
more effective,” Dr. Culp said. “It’s a learning process and something
that holds tremendous promise for the treatment of patients with serious
liver disease.”
Currently, about 14,000 people are awaiting donor livers in the United
States, but only about 5,000 receive transplants annually, according to
the United Network of Organ Sharing.
“With the tremendous shortage of available donor organs, it’s critical
that we look outside liver transplantation for other ways to treat liver
disease,” Dr. Culp said. “Liver cell transplantation may become one important
option with further development in the future. We have made great strides
in the angiographic delivery of hepatocytes to the liver and spleen and
hope for similar advances in other problem areas of this technique.”
An assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Radiology, Dr. Culp
is an interventional radiologist. He has been at the Medical Center since
1997.
An interventional radiologist is a physician who has special training
to diagnose and treat illness using miniature tools and imaging guidance.
Typically, the interventional radiologist performs procedures through a
very small nick in the skin. Interventional radiology treatments are generally
easier for the patient and less risky than surgery, because they involve
no surgical incisions, less pain and shorter hospital stays.
Co-authors of the abstract presented by Dr. Culp were: Timothy Goertzen,
M.D., Thomas Habbe, M.D., Michael Hummel, M.D., Timothy McCowan, M.D.,
and Ira Fox, M.D. All these physicians are radiologists, except for Dr.
Fox, who is a transplant surgeon and the principal investigator on this
project.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.
Through its commitment to research, education, outreach and patient care,
UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading centers for
cancer research and treatment and solid organ transplantation. Nearly $31
million in research grants and contracts were awarded to UNMC scientists
during the past fiscal year. In addition, UNMC’s educational programs are
responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska
than any other institution.