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In a prospective study three different immunosuppressive schemata after renal transplantation were compared. In group A (47 patients) conventional treatment with azathioprin and steroids was administered; in group B (47 patients) antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) was additionally given for three weeks. In group C (47 patients) ALG-azathioprin-steroid administration lasted for a mean of nine days after the transplantation, followed by ciclosporin. One-year transplant survival rate was 59.6% in group A, 70.2% in group B and 89.4% in group C; one-year patients survival rate 95.7%, 89.4% and 100%, respectively. Thus conventional immunosuppression with ALG followed by ciclosporin was statistically significantly superior to the other two treatment schedules, both with respect to patient and transplant survival. This was also true of postoperative dialysis rate, which was lowest in group C, at 17%, compared with group A (85.1%) and group B (42.6%). Under the chosen study conditions there was no evidence of a negative effect of ciclosporin on long-term renal function.

Dogs which had received cyclosporine A for immunosuppression were investigated to elucidate functionality and morphological alterations in pancreas allografts, with enteral, vesical, peritoneal or occluded exocrine drainage. None of the animals with enteral drainage survived the first four postoperative weeks, with lethal infections being responsible for allograft failure. Full functionality three months from transplantation was recorded from three of seven transplants with ductal occlusion and unobstructed drainage into the abdominal cavity. Ductal occlusion was repeatedly accompanied by pancreatitis and pseudo-cysts. Fibrotisation of the organ and loss of endocrine islets of pancreas were recordable from these cases just as from grafts with unobstructed drainage into the abdominal cavity. Drainage of exocrine secretion into the bladder yielded good success in one of seven animals and was morphologically and functionally characterised primarily by occlusive metaplastic ossification along the transition to the anastomosis.

A method is described for the screening of the new analgesic bromfenac via thin-layer chromatographic analysis of its acid hydrolysis product and subsequent Bratton-Marshall detection.