Pascual 2003.

Methods	Study design: parallel RCT Study duration: recruitment January 2000 to October 2001 Duration of follow‐up: 6 months
Participants	Setting: multicentre (2 centres) Country: USA Patients aged ≥ 18 years with stable kidney function randomised at least after 1 year post‐transplant (cadaveric, living‐related or living‐unrelated) Number: treatment group (32); control group (32) Mean age ± SD (years): treatment group (47 ± 12); control group (45 ± 13) Sex (M/F): treatment group (27/5); control group (21/11) Exclusion criteria: not reported
Interventions	Treatment group CsA reduction to 50% over 2 months: initial 25% reduction then further 25% reduction after 2 months if no rejection Control group CsA trough levels: 100 to 300 ng/mL Both groups MMF PRED CsA trough at randomisation: 100 to 300 ng/mL
Outcomes	Graft loss AR SCr CrCl Hypertension
Notes	AR: not qualified if biopsy proven or included clinical + BPAR Funding source: "This work was supported by an unrestricted grant from Roche Laboratories. Manuel Pascual, MD, was supported by the Helen and George Burr Endowed Research and Educational Fund in Support of Transplantation and by the Yates Fund for Transplant Technology."
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Study was described as randomised, method of randomisation was not reported
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to permit judgement
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open‐label study
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to permit judgement
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No missing outcome data noted
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	All outcomes reported
Other bias	High risk	Funded by Roche Laboratories