How are patients chosen for a HITS transplant?
A small number of patients have been selected for the earliest HITS transplants. For islet only transplants, they are chosen by the Immune Tolerance Network from a pool of volunteer candidates. Then they are further screened by HITS to meet the stringent eligibility requirements of the research study. Participants in the kidney-islet program, are volunteers from among the kidney patients of participating HITS institutions. They too must meet strict health criteria to be included. Among other requirements of age, weight, glucose levels, and health history, participating patients all have type 1 diabetes, all are adults, and, in spite of scrupulous diet and lifestyle control, all still experience extreme insulin failure.
