Antazoline as an adjuvant in immunosuppressive therapy in renal transplant patients.

The survival of transplanted cadaver kidneys was compared in a group of 33 first-transplant patients treated with antazoline (Antistine) in addition to conventional immunosuppressive therapy (group A) and a group of 36 patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy only (group B). After 1 year, the transplant survival rate was 79% in group A as compared to 56% in group B (P less than 0.05). The difference which was still present after 2 and 5 years could not be attributed to any other factors that might have influenced the survival rate. Antazoline appears above all to diminish the intensity of moderately severe rejection episodes, which often lead to graft loss inducing a chronic type of rejection reaction. However, the frequency of rejection crises during the first 4 months and the percentages of patients without rejection or with primary irreversible rejection crises were practically the same in the two groups. The mechanism of action underlying this potentially important immunosuppressive effect of antazoline is as yet not clarified.