After almost three years of getting home blood draws and sending in test tubes of blood to Natera, I finally received a link to my Prospera results. From their website:
Covered by Medicare, Prospera is a transplant rejection assessment test that uses a simple blood draw to evaluate the risk of rejection of a transplanted kidney.
Through the use of advanced cell-free DNA technology, Prospera increases a provider’s ability to identify otherwise undetected rejection that might lead to kidney loss. Catching transplant rejection as soon as possible can help providers develop a treatment plan to best protect the donated kidney.
https://www.natera.com/organ-health/prospera-organ-transplantation-assessment/
Hmm. I guess I never saw the Medicare part. I have not paid for any of these tests for the past three years. I orginally thought it was part of a research program, but it appears that the test costs were covered by Medicare. Not sure what happens when my Medicare coverage ends in two months.
As for the results, there are two measurements in the reference range: dd-cfDNA% and dd-cfDNA score. For the result to be classified as decreased risk of rejection, the criteria are dd-cfDNA% < 1% and dd-cfDNA score < 78 cp/ml.
| Blood Draw Date | dd-cfDNA% (< 1%) | dd-cfDNA score (< 78) |
| 2/25/2021 | 0.26% | — |
| 3/29/2021 | 0.43% | — |
| 4/26/2021 | 0.41% | — |
| 5/27/2021 | 0.32% | — |
| 7/23/2021 | 0.23% | — |
| 10/25/2021 | 0.16% | 10 cp/ml |
| 1/24/2022 | 0.25% | 10 cp/ml |
| 4/25/2022 | 0.16% | 8 cp/ml |
| 7/25/2022 | 0.22% | 12 cp/ml |
| 10/26/2022 | 0.18% | 12 cp/ml |
| 7/26/2023 | ||
The results appear to say that I am at a decreased risk of rejection. However, I do not know if any of the fluctuations in the results are significant. I also do not have the results yet from the latest blood draw yesterday.
Life with chronic diseases 