title: Characteristics of patients with Banff borderline changes in renal allograft biopsies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this retrospective study was to characterize the patients who experienced borderline rejection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with a minimum follow-up of 2 years were enrolled in this study. Forty-seven patients out of 106 patients with borderline rejection (after exclusion of those with associated chronic interstitial fibrosis) were compared with patients with acute cellular rejection grade 1 (n = 650), and patients free of rejection episodes (n = 444) regarding the different characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients aged 20 years or younger were frequently in borderline rejection group than other groups (which was statistically significant) (P = .001). Significant differences were found in recipient and donor ages, consanguinity, pretransplant blood transfusion, and immunosuppression plan. Most patients in borderline rejection group received triple immunosuppression therapy than other groups (P = .001). Univariate and multivariate regression analysis of different variables on graft survival in borderline rejection patients revealed that none of them was statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Borderline rejection is a frequent finding in biopsy-proven acute rejection after kidney transplant. Time of occurrence, frequency, treatment or not, and response to therapy were not predictors to graft survival.
authors.affiliation: Urology and Nephrology Center, University of Mansoura, Mansoura, Egypt. amgadelagroudy@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Amgad E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: El-Agroudy
authors.forename: Ehab W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Wafa
authors.forename: Tarek M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Abbas
authors.forename: Amr
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Husseini
authors.forename: Osama A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Gheith
authors.forename: Mahmoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Baz
authors.forename: Mohamed A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ghoneim
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D019520:Living Donors; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult