Validation of the Banff criteria for acute rejection in renal transplant biopsies

The histological criteria for the diagnosis of mild acute rejection in renal transplant biopsies have not been well defined.

To ascertain the value of the Banff criteria for transplant biopsy reporting, particularly for the diagnosis of acute rejection, and the 'borderline' category.

We compared two systems of histological assessment in 23 transplant biopsy specimens and compared histological diagnoses to separately defined clinical diagnoses. The histological criteria applied were those of the recently described Banff criteria which were compared with our traditional diagnostic method for each specimen.

We found the Banff diagnoses more closely related to the clinical outcome than the system of histological diagnosis that we had previously been using.

We conclude that the Banff criteria more accurately reflect the clinical situation.