CHICAGO - A racial gap in kidney transplants appears to have closed. That's according to an analysis of data on nearly 200,000 end-stage kidney disease patients. 

The study shows the transplant rate for blacks climbed from 93 per 1,000 patients in 1998 to about 128 per 1,000 patients in 2010 and 2011. The rate was the same for whites. 

Dr. Jesse Sammon is the senior author and a urologist at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. He says the trend likely stems from a 2003 change in a national allocation policy for donor kidneys. That change eased a restriction on certain partially matched donor kidneys.

Advanced kidney disease is more common in blacks but they are less likely to be referred for transplants.

The study appears Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.