Abstract
Clinically, when applying multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations in renal diseases, assessment of renal structure and function has to account for age- and sex-related effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of age and sex on multiparametric MRI assessment of renal structure and function in healthy human beings. Studies on 33 healthy volunteers were performed using multiparametric MRI on a 3.0-Tesla MR scanner, including T1-weighted imaging, blood oxygen level-dependent MRI (BOLD MRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Our results revealed that the mean renal cortical thickness (RCT), ratio of cortex to parenchyma (CPR), and cortical R2* values were higher in males than in females. The cortical R2* value was higher in older group than in younger group (18.57 ± 0.99 vs 17.53 ± 0.58, p = 0.001); there was no significant difference in medullary R2* between the older and younger groups (38.18 ± 2.96 vs 36.45 ± 2.47, p = 0.077). The parenchymal thickness (PT) and medullary fractional anisotropy (FA) were lower in older group than in younger group (1.547 ± 0.06 vs 1.604 ± 0.05, p = 0.005 and 0.343 ± 0.03 vs 0.371 ± 0.03, p = 0.016, respectively). Pearson’s correlation analysis showed that PT and medullary FA were inversely related with age (r = −0.483, p = 0.004; r = −0.446, p = 0.009) while cortical R2* values was positively related (r = 0.511, p = 0.002, respectively). The medullary apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value had a significant association with PT (r = 0.359, p = 0.04). This study indicated that multiparametric renal MRI parameters are age and sex dependent.
Highlights
The kidney is an intricate organ, which plays an important role in ensuring acid-base balance, regulating electrolytes and blood pressure as well as filtering blood to remove waste substances from the body
There were no differences observed between the renal cortical thickness (RCT), parenchymal thickness (PT), ratio of cortex to parenchyma (CPR), R2*, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the left and right kidney
As at the time of this research, there was apparently no reproducibility study of RCT and PT measurements on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy subjects, findings from our study showed that these variables are highly reproducible
Summary
The kidney is an intricate organ, which plays an important role in ensuring acid-base balance, regulating electrolytes and blood pressure as well as filtering blood to remove waste substances (e.g. urate, urea, toxins) from the body These physiological activities utilize oxygen and heavily depend on water molecule transporting ability of the kidney, which is strikingly different in renal cortex and medulla due to different vascular and tubular arrangement[1]. It is necessary to establish the normal values of related parameters and their relevant influencing factors in healthy population before clinical application It has only been performed in limited studies that analyze the impact of sex and age[11,12,13,14,15]. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of age and sex on renal structure and function in healthy human beings with multiparametric MRI examination on a 3.0 T MR system
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