Early diagnosis of acute postoperative renal transplant rejection

A prospective evaluation of In-111 labeled autologous platelet scintigraphy for the early diagnosis of acute postoperative renal transplant rejection was undertaken. To date, 28 consecutive patients between 7 and 14 days post-op have been injected with 500..mu..Ci of In-111 platelets followed by imaging at 24 and 48 hours. Activity within the renal transplant exceeding activity in the adjacent iliac vessels was considered to be evidence of rejection, and both chemical evidence and clinical impression of rejection at 5 days after completion of imaging was accepted as proof of ongoing or incipient rejection at the time of scintigraphy. In addition, to visual inspection, independent quantitative analysis compared the area-normalized activity over the transplant with the adjacent iliac vessels (normal <1.0). For 5 patients, positive In-111 scintigraphy was present before convincing clinical evidence of rejection. In-111 platelet scintigraphy is useful not only to confirm the clinical diagnosis of rejection but also to establish the early, pre-clinical diagnosis of incipient acute postoperative renal transplant rejection.