Calcineurin Inhibitors in Liver Transplantation: Safety and Efficacy, Acute Rejection, and Long-term Survival

Please Note: This CME activity has expired. You may continue to view the material for educational purposes, but this activity is no longer eligible for CME credit.

Course Objectives:
This CME/CE-certified monograph is intended for transplant surgeons, hepatologists, nurses, pharmacists and case managers.

Upon completing this activity, you should be able to:

1. Examine the incidence of hypertension associated with calcineurin inhibitors in liver transplant recipients.
2. Discuss the prevalence and onset of new-onset diabetes mellitus that occur with calcineurin therapy.
3. Discuss the safety and efficacy of conversion to tacrolimus and long-term effects of calcineurin inhibitors on lipid profiles and renal function.

Accreditation:
This activity was reviewed for relevance, accuracy of content, balance of presentation, and time required for participation by Nicole Weinreb, MD; Alexandra Mangili, MD, MPh; and Abigail Zavod, MD; TG Medical Education; Commission for Case Manager Certification; and International Transplant Nurses Society.

Release Date: December 2007
Expiration Date: December 31, 2008

Millennium CME Institute, Inc., is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Millennium CME Institute, Inc., designates this CME-certified monograph for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Participants should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This activity is approved for 1.0 credit hour (0.1 CEU). TG Medical Education is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) as a provider of continuing pharmacy education. The program number is 454-999-07-038-H01-P and release date is 09/17/2007. The International Transplant Nurses Society has applied to American Board of Transplant Coordinators (ABTC) for approval of CEPTC credits for transplant coordinators and to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) for Continuing nursing education credits (CEU’s).

Application has been made with CCMC or the Commission for Case Manager Certification for 1 hour.

© 2007 Millennium CME Institute, Inc. All rights reserved including translation into other languages.No part of this activitymay be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Millennium CME Institute, Inc.

Faculty Disclosure:
The opinions expressed in this activity are those of the faculty. It should not be inferred or assumed that they are expressing the views of Astellas Pharma US, Inc., any other manufacturer of pharmaceuticals, or Millennium CME Institute, Inc. The drug selection and dosage information presented in this activity are believed to be accurate. However, participants are urged to consult the full prescribing information on any agent(s) presented in this activity for recommended dosage, indications, contraindications, warnings, precautions, and adverse effects before prescribing any medication. This is particularly important when a drug is new or infrequently prescribed.

Disclosure of Significant Relationships with Relevant Commercial Companies/Organizations

Millennium CME Institute, Inc., endorses the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) Standards for Commercial Support. All faculty are required to disclose any commercial relationships or personal benefit with companies whose products are discussed in educational presentations and with companies who have provided the commercial support for this activity. Disclosure of a relationship is not intended to suggest or condone bias in any presentation, but is made to provide participants with information that might be of potential importance to their evaluation of a presentation.

The faculty listed below have declared that they have no relationships to disclose:

Frank A.Gesek, PhD, RPh
Tim I. Robinson
Peter B. Lindgren, PhD
Nicole Weinreb, MD
Alexandra Mangili, MD, MPh
Abigail Zavod, MD
David J. Reich, MD, FACS

Off-label Usage Disclosure

This multimedia CME/CE activity contains information on commercial products/devices that are unlabeled for use or investigational uses of products not yet approved.

Faculty and Planning Committee

Expert Commentary

David J. Reich, MD, FACS, Director, Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery Program; Associate Chairman, Department of Surgery Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia; Associate Professor of Surgery, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Medical Reviewer

Nicole Weinreb, MD, Consulting Physician
Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts

Planning Committee

Tim I. Robinson, President
Millennium CME Institute, Inc., Hampton, New Hampshire

Frank A. Gesek, PhD, RPh, Clinical Affairs Specialist
Millennium CME Institute, Inc., Hampton, New Hampshire

Peter B. Lindgren, PhD, Clinical Affairs Specialist
Millennium CME Institute, Inc., Hampton, New Hampshire

Directions:
The learner should read the learning objectives and review the activity in its entirety. After reviewing the material, the learner should complete the Activity Self-assessment Test consisting of a series of multiple-choice questions. Upon successfully completing this activity as designed and achieving a passing score of 70% or higher on the Activity Self-assessment Test, participants will receive a continuing education credit letter awarding the appropriate credit and the Activity Self-assessment Test answers four to six weeks after the receipt of the registration and evaluation materials.

Estimated time to complete this CME/CE-certified monograph as designed is 1.0 hour.

CME Testing Options