title: [Immunological aspects of kidney transplantation in Switzerland 1981-1992. Swiss Transplant Work Group Kidney Transplantation].
abstract: Every year some 200-260 kidney transplants are performed in Switzerland, improving the quality of life of patients with end stage renal disease. The current organ shortage is delaying transplantation of the 400 patients on the waiting list, a situation which calls for optimal utilization of the available donor kidneys. It is well established that AB0-compatibility, negative cytotoxic crossmatch, and optimal immunosuppressive therapy including cyclosporin A are important for a favorable clinical outcome. To identify further factors influencing transplant outcome, we undertook a retrospective study of all 1656 transplants to which the above criteria applied. We defined transplants matched for at least 1A, 1B, and 1DR HLA antigen as the better matched, and the remainder as the less well matched grafts. In patients who were not or only weakly immunized to alloantigens, the 5-year graft survival probability was 0.78 versus 0.69 for the better versus the less well matched transplants (p < 0.005). The strongly immunized patients did not, however, show a significant association between the degree of HLA matching and graft survival, presumably because there were more immunized patients in the HLA matched group. As expected, the patients previously immunized to alloantigens showed significantly reduced graft survival early after transplantation. Positive CMV serology, sex mismatch, and cold ischemia time did not correlate with graft survival. Compared to results obtained in the USA or Germany, the survival time of donor kidneys transplanted in Switzerland was significantly increased. Factors contributing to the good results in Switzerland are discussed. Future goals are reduction of alloimmunization and optimized HLA compatibility.
authors.affiliation: Nationales Referenzlabor für Histokompatibilität, Swisstransplant, Hôpital cantonal universtaire, Genève.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Speiser
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Frick
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goumaz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Opelz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jeannet
mesh_terms: D016572:Cyclosporine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013557:Switzerland
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D016572:Cyclosporine
vernacular_title: Immunologische Aspekte der Nierentransplantation in der Schweiz 1981-1992.Swisstransplant Arbeitsgruppe Nierentransplantation.