title: Assessment of renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease using diffusion-weighted MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the performance of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the assessment of renal fibrosis in chronic kidney disease (CKD), with histopathology as a reference standard.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty patients with CKD and 30 healthy volunteers were recruited for the study. All participants underwent diffusion-weighted MRI. Renal biopsy was performed in 25 patients with CKD. Mean renal medullary and cortical apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were compared between CKD patients and the healthy volunteers. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to investigate the relationship between ADC values, serum creatinine (SCr), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), 24 h urinary protein (24h-UPRO), and renal histopathological scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cortical and medullary ADC values in the CKD group were significantly lower compared to those in the healthy controls. In the CKD group, a significant negative correlation was found between cortical ADC values and SCr/24h-UPRO, and significant positive correlation was found between cortical ADC and eGFR. There was also a significant negative correlation between medullary ADC values and SCr. Both cortical and medullary ADC values were significantly correlated with histopathological fibrosis score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Renal ADC values strongly correlate with histological measures of fibrosis, and have the potential to enhance the non-invasive monitoring of chronic kidney disease.
authors: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Zhao
authors: Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors: Z J
authors: ZJ
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Nephrology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Zhu
authors: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Nephrology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Li
authors: Department of Nephrology, The Third Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China. Electronic address: liyinghebei@126.com.
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005355:Fibrosis; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000175:diagnosis; D051436:Renal Insufficiency, Chronic / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine