Drachenberg C B, Papadimitriou J C, Schweitzer E, Philosophe B, Foster C, Bartlett S T
Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Transplant Proc. 2004 Apr;36(3):780-1. doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2004.03.036.
Thirty intraoperative needle core biopsies of well-functioning pancreas allografts were performed from 2 days to 7 years posttransplantation (mean 15.4 months). Most samples (83.3%) lacked significant inflammation or fibrosis. The five patients who showed features of ongoing low-grade acute rejection experienced premature graft losses due to chronic rejection. There were no complications related to the intraoperative biopsy itself.