Extracorporeal Irradiation of the Blood

Abstract

By means of extracorporeal irradiation of the blood (ECIB) lymphopenia is produced in man. This method has been used in the clinical work as immunosuppressive therapy before and after renal transplantation. In the present study, the histological changes of acute and chronic rejection in non‐surviving kidney grafts were compared in 29 patients who received ECIB before and after grafting (group I) and 42 non‐ECIB treated patients (group II). The median survival time of the graft was 45 days (range 2–790). In addition, the histological changes in biopsies from the grafts taken during early acute rejection episodes were studied. The histological changes were divided in acute rejection and chronic changes and graded according to the severity of the observed changes. Furthermore, the degree of mononuclear cell infiltration were evaluated. No statistical difference between group I and II, neither regarding histological changes in the grafted kidneys nor in the biopsies, could be demonstrated.