Plasma levels of leukotriene B4 during hepatic allograft rejection.

At the present time, rejection is the most frequent cause of graft dysfunction in liver transplantation. Differential diagnosis between this and other possible causes of dysfunction—preservation injury, vascular, biliary, viral—may well be difficult, as the clinical and analytical findings are often similar; moreover, no markers specific to rejection are available, and histological studies are necessary for a definitive diagnosis. For this reason, markers indicating activity within the immune system need to be established so as to provide a more specific means of distinguishing rejection from other causes of graft dysfunction.