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Use of Ultra-high Field MRI in Small Rodent Models of Polycystic Kidney Disease for In Vivo Phenotyping and Drug Monitoring
Published on: June 23, 2015
Insight into Kidney Function and Microstructure Through Renal MRI-Review of the Literature
Marcin Majos1, Artur Klepaczko2, Ilona Kurnatowska3
1Department of Normal and Clinical Anatomy, Medical University of Lodz, 90-136 Łódź, Poland.
Insights
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects millions globally. Kidney MRI shows promise for early detection of tissue changes, potentially improving treatment timing for this condition.
Area of Science:
- Nephrology
- Radiology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant global health issue, affecting nearly 10% of the population.
- Current CKD diagnosis relies on serum creatinine, which indicates damage has already occurred.
- Existing non-invasive methods often require kidney biopsy for confirmation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present current clinical knowledge on kidney Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
- To highlight MRI's potential as a tissue-specific diagnostic tool for CKD.
Main Methods:
- Review of up-to-date clinical literature on kidney MRI.
- Focus on MRI's capability to detect specific pathological changes in kidney tissue.
Main Results:
- MRI is a highly tissue-specific imaging method.
- MRI can detect inflammatory changes, edema, fibrosis, and perfusion/oxygenation disturbances.
- These findings suggest MRI's utility in assessing kidney health.
Conclusions:
- Kidney MRI offers a promising non-invasive approach for CKD diagnosis.
- MRI may enable earlier detection of kidney damage compared to current methods.
- Further clinical application of kidney MRI is anticipated.
Abstract:
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) represents a growing medical, diagnostic and social challenge, and it is estimated to effect 8.5-9.8% of the global population and requires expensive modes of treatment, such as hemodialysis or renal transplants. Currently, a diagnosis of CKD is set based on the level of creatinine in the blood, which is the gold standard of renal function diagnostics. Unfortunately, decrease in GFR is secondary to damage of the kidney parenchyma and indicates that the best time to start more aggressive treatment has already passed. Therefore, several non-invasive methods have been proposed for predicting increased risk of CKD progression; however, in most of the cases kidney biopsy is essential. Currently, the greatest hopes for a method that can confirm CKD are associated with the development of MRI, the most tissue-specific imaging method, and it is already proven to be capable to detect inflammatory and edematous changes, fibrosis, as well as perfusion and oxygenation disturbances. Therefore, in our manuscript we decided to present up-to-date knowledge about kidney MRI from a clinical point of view.
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