Cyclosporine in treatment of corticosteroid-resistant episodes of rejection.

We used cyclosporine (formerly called cyclosporin A) to treat established episodes of kidney-transplant rejection in six patients in whom the use of corticosteroids either was ineffective or was precluded by preestablished side effects. All patients were followed up by using fine-needle aspiration biopsy and transplant aspiration cytology. In four episodes of rejection with typical blast cell--dominated inflammation, the response to cyclosporine was apparently favorable: the inflammatory cells disappeared within days and the transplant resumed its normal function. One episode of acute rejection was overcome within a week after discontinuing treatment with cyclosporine. In one episode of chronic rejection that was devoid of any distinct blastogenic component, no effect of cyclosporine could be detected. We believe that cyclosporine can be used to treat established episodes of rejection, but what type or types of inflammatory episodes are susceptible to cyclosporine must first be clarified through prerandomized clinical trials.