Assessment of transplanted kidney function based on apparent diffusion coefficient histogram.

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Imaging
• Nephrology
• Transplant Medicine

Background:

• Renal allograft function monitoring is crucial for long-term patient outcomes.
• Non-invasive imaging biomarkers are needed to assess kidney transplant health.
• Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measures water molecule diffusion, reflecting tissue microstructural integrity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of whole-volume ADC histogram analysis in stratifying renal allograft function.
• To determine if ADC histogram features can differentiate varying degrees of kidney allograft injury.
• To assess the utility of ADC histogram analysis for long-term monitoring of kidney transplant recipients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 85 renal transplant recipients with ADC measurements.
• Classification of patients into normal graft function, mild-to-moderate injury, and severe injury groups based on eGFR.
• Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to compare histogram features' ability to differentiate functional groups.

Main Results:

• Eight ADC histogram parameters were valuable for assessing renal dysfunction.
• Seven parameters, including ADCmean and various percentiles, significantly differentiated normal function from severe injury.
• The 50th percentile showed the highest AUC (0.785) for differentiating normal from severe dysfunction; the 10th percentile (AUC=0.684) best differentiated normal from mild-to-moderate dysfunction.

Conclusions:

• Whole-volume ADC histogram analysis is an effective tool for stratifying renal allograft function.
• ADC histogram analysis can distinguish between different degrees of renal allograft dysfunction.
• This non-invasive technique offers a sensitive method for long-term monitoring of kidney transplant patients.