Algorithm may help avoid 40% of kidney transplant rejection misdiagnoses: study

The decision-support system “could have important clinical implications for the management and treatment of transplant recipients,” researchers found. According to a report published in Nature Medicine, an algorithm may help pathologists prevent 40% of incorrect diagnoses of organ transplant rejection and enhance patient risk stratification. The parameters used by doctors to evaluate if a patient is rejecting an organ are used by the decision-support system to autonomously diagnose the status of kidney transplants. The programme reclassified pathologists' rejection diagnosis in two clinical studies. Experts who were not involved in the study predicted that the approach "could have important clinical implications for the management and treatment of kidney transplant recipients" as a result of the association between diagnostic errors repaired by the algorithm and improved risk classification. The international Banff classification is used by doctors to identify kidney transplant rejection.