Automated quantitative evaluation of diseased and nondiseased renal transplants with MR renography.
OBJECTIVE
To present a method of automated parametric quantification of dynamic MR enhancement curves of renal transplants and evaluate the disease-discriminating properties of the resulting MR renography (MRR) data.


METHODS
This study included 27 patients with nondiseased renal transplants and eight patients with diseased renal transplants. The examination was repeated in 10 patients and the reproducibility of the enhancement parameters was estimated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The disease-discriminating properties of the transplant volumes and enhancement parameters were tested with t-tests and logistic regression analysis.


RESULTS
The enhancement parameters were reproducible. The mean medullary nephronal washout rate (lambda1) and cortical arterial blood volume (mu0) were lower in diseased renal transplants. The combination of these parameters was a strong predictor of renal transplant disease (area under ROC curve 0.98; 95% confidence interval 0.96-1.0).


CONCLUSIONS
Automated parametric quantification of cortical and medullary enhancement is feasible and allows the accurate detection of nonsurgical disease in renal transplants by MRR.
de Priester
Jacobus A
JA
Department of Radiology, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands. depriester@planet.nl
den Boer
Jacques A
JA
Christiaans
Maarten H L
MH
Kessels
Alphons G H
AG
Giele
Eelco L W
EL
Hasman
Arie
A
van Hooff
Hans P
HP
van Engelshoven
Jos M A
JM
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005682:Gadolinium; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012372:ROC Curve; D011866:Radioisotope Renography; D012044:Regression Analysis
D005682:Gadolinium