FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Volume 307:905-908 October 7, 1982 Number 15 Next

	Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Abstract

Data on the effect of HLA-A and HLA-B matching between unrelated donors and recipients focus mainly on graft survival. After linking the follow-up data of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association and those of the Eurotransplant Foundation, the effect of HLA-A and HLA-B matching on recipient survival could be studied. Recipients of well-matched kidneys--i.e., without mismatches for the HLA-A and B antigens--had 51 per cent graft survival at five years, whereas recipients of grafts mismatched for four antigens had 32 per cent graft survival at five years. The overall P value between the five different mismatch classes was 0.0005. Patient survival at five years was 72 per cent in recipients of a kidney without HLA-A and B mismatches and 54 per cent in recipients of a completely mismatched donor kidney (overall, P = 0.001). These results suggest that matching for the HLA antigens has a beneficial long-term effect not only on renal-allograft survival but also on patient survival.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• De Meester, J., Persijn, G. G., Claas, F. H. J., Frei, U. (2000). In the queue for a cadaver donor kidney transplant: new rules and concepts in the Eurotransplant International Foundation. Nephrol Dial Transplant 15: 333-338 [Full Text]  
• van Rood, J., Claas, F. (1990). The influence of allogeneic cells on the human T and B cell repertoire. Science 248: 1388-1393 [Abstract]