Amide proton transfer magnetic resonance imaging to evaluate renal impairment in patients with chronic kidney disease

Objective: We aimed to investigate the value of amide proton transfer magnetic resonance imaging (APT-MRI) in the classification of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Materials and methods: A total of 30 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 25 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Patients with chronic kidney disease were divided into two groups according to glomerular filtration rates: mild and moderate-to-severe renal impairment. Differences in cortical and medullary APT values were compared, and the correlation between corticomedullary APT values and glomerular filtration rates was analyzed. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 23.0. Results: Based on glomerular filtration rates, 14 patients were assigned to the mild renal impairment group, and 16 were assigned to the moderate-to-severe renal impairment group. Both of the cortical and medullary APT values showed a gradually increasing trend in the control, the mild, and the moderate-to-severe renal impairment groups. Cortical APT values were higher than medullary APT values in all the control and renal impairment groups (P < 0.05). APT values of the right renal cortex (r = -0.80, P < 0.05) and medulla (r = -0.83, P < 0.05) were negatively correlated with the glomerular filtration rate. Results of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that corticomedullary APT values had high diagnostic efficacy in assessing different degrees of renal impairment. Conclusions: The APT values of the cortex and medulla in patients with CKD gradually increased with disease progression. These findings indicated that APT imaging can be used to evaluate renal function and renal injury in patients with CKD.