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Renal corticomedullary differentiation: observation in patients with differing serum creatinine levels
R C Semelka1, K Corrigan, S M Ascher
1Department of Radiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 27599.
Purpose:
To evaluate renal corticomedullary differentiation (CMD) in patients with differing serum creatinine (sCr) levels.
Materials And Methods:
Ten patients with normal sCr levels (0.9-1.3 mg/dL [80-115 mumol/L]), 14 with mildly elevated levels (1.5-2.9 mg/dL [133-256 mumol/L]), and 15 with elevated levels (> 3.0 mg/dL [265 mumol/L]) were examined with unenhanced T1-weighted fat-suppressed spin-echo (T1FS) and immediate gadolinium-enhanced gradient-echo (Gd-GRE) imaging.
Results:
Patients with normal sCr levels had CMD on T1FS and Gd-GRE images. Among patients with mildly elevated levels, seven did and seven did not have CMD on T1FS images; all had CMD on Gd-GRE images. Patients with elevated levels had no CMD on T1FS images; 13 had CMD on Gd-GRE images. Two patients with levels above 10.0 mg/dL (884 mumol/L) had no CMD on Gd-GRE images.
Conclusion:
Independent of the cause of elevated sCr level, levels above 3.0 mg/dL result in loss of CMD on T1FS images, while levels above 10.0 mg/dL result in loss of CMD on Gd-GRE images.