A three-year experience with serum anodal trypsinogen as a biochemical marker for rejection in pancreatic allografts. False positives, tissue biopsy, comparison with other markers, and diagnostic strategies.

Serum values of immunoreactive anodal trypsinogen (sAT) have been claimed to correlate well with rejection occurring in pancreatic allografts. We have studied the behavior of sAT in serial serum samples obtained from 39 type I diabetics undergoing whole-organ pancreas transplantation during the past 3 years. Patients had either received a pancreatic allograft simultaneously with a transplanted kidney (SPK, n = 33) or after a previous kidney transplant (pancreas after kidney [PAK] n = 6). The behavior of sAT was studied in relation to the clinical diagnosis of rejection. Graft amylase output for all 39 patients and serum creatinine for the 33 SPK recipients were also studied. Tissue biopsies were obtained from 11 patients with elevated sAT values and a presumptive diagnosis of rejection. Nine of these patients had SPK grafts and simultaneously elevated creatinine values. Tissue was obtained from the simultaneously transplanted kidney; all specimens revealed rejection. Two of the 11 patients had PAK allografts. Biopsies performed on the graft duodenum were consistent with acute rejection. Three additional patients with unchanged sAT values had biopsies for other reasons; these biopsies failed to demonstrate signs of acute rejection. Thus graft biopsy correlated exactly with sAT behavior in every case in which rejection was suspected. Five patients had elevations of sAT not associated with rejection: one resulted from direct trauma, two had outlet obstruction, and two had clinical diagnoses of graft pancreatitis. The sAT was more sensitive and specific than GAO and as sensitive as creatinine for SPK recipients. These studies confirm that sAT is a reliable, graft-specific biochemical marker for the early diagnosis of pancreatic rejection. The use of sAT should allow for the proper timing of graft biopsies and the judicious use of immunosuppressive agents, which will result in increased allograft survival for PAK and pancreas-alone allografts.