NONINVASIVE MONITORING OF GRAFT DYSFUNCTION AFTER RENAL-TRANSPLANTATION

Episodes of renal allograft dysfunction are common events following tr ansplantation. As acute rejection is more likely to be successfully re versed at an early stage, physicians crave for highly sensitive and sp ecific diagnostic tools to achieve an accurate, fast and specific diag nosis. This article reviews data on non-invasive monitoring. Due to th e mass of articles in this field, not every study could be mentioned. Those studies were selected which examined the first or most important approach towards an understanding of the diagnostic tools. Cytokine d etection as well as strictly virological or bacteriological diagnostic s were not included. Based on the literature available, non-invasive m onitoring is useful in many cases, but a biopsy remains the gold stand ard.