Non-invasive evaluation of the pathological and functional characteristics of chronic kidney disease by diffusion kurtosis imaging and intravoxel incoherent motion imaging: comparison with conventional DWI

Abstract

Objective: To explore the diagnostic performance of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and incoherent intravoxel movement (IVIM) in evaluating the clinical and pathological characteristics in chronic kidney disease (CKD) compared to conventional diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Methods: Forty-nine CKD patients and 24 healthy volunteers were included in this retrospective study from September 2020 to September 2021. All participants underwent MRI examinations before percutaneous renal biopsy. Coronal T2WI, axial T1WI and T2WI, and DWI (including IVIM and DKI) sequences obtained in one scan. We measured the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), true diffusion coefficient (Dt), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (Dp), perfusion fraction (fp), mean kurtosis (MK), and mean diffusivity (MD) values. One-way analysis of variance, correlation analysis, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were used in our study. Results: Cortex and medulla ADC, MK, Dt, fp were significantly different between the healthy volunteers and CKD stages 1–2 (all p < 0.05). All diffusion parameters showed significant differences between CKD stages 1–2 and CKD stages 3–5 (all p < 0.05). Except for the uncorrelation between MDMedulla and vascular lesion score, all other diffusion parameters were low-to-moderately related to clinical and pathological indicators. fpMedulla was the best parameter to differentiate healthy volunteers from CKD stages 1–2. MKCortex was the best parameter to differentiate CKD stages 1–2 from that CKD stages 3–5. Conclusion: Renal cortex and medulla fp, Dt, and MK can provide more valuable information than ADC values for the evaluation of clinical and pathological characteristics of CKD patients, and thus can provide auxiliary diagnosis for fibrosis assessment and clinical management of CKD patients. Advances in knowledge: IVIM and DKI can provide more diagnostic valuable information for CKD patients than conventional DWI.