Clinical, radiological and pathological evaluation of the kidney multiparametric MR imaging results of the patients who has been diagnosed with primary glomerulonephritis and amyloidosis

Glomerulonephritis and amyloidosis are frequent causes of chronic kidney disease. Kidney biopsy is performed in order to determine the underlying cause, therapy and prognosis in glomerular diseases. There is a need to reach these goals via non-invasive methods given the risks and limitations of kidney biopsy. Multiparametric MRI is a method that provides functional data of organs and studies of this method showed that biopsy results of breast, prostate and renal masses correlate with MRI results. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation of multiparametric MRI data with clinical parameters of kidney disease and histopathological evidences of glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis in patients with primary glomerulonephritis and amiloidosis. MRI with T1W, T2W, T2*, MR elastography sequences and cT1W calculations of 39 patients with preliminary diagnosis of primary glomerulonephritis and amyloidosis were obtained as well as urine albumin and protein excretion levels. Correlation analysis revealed that MR elastography values are negatively correlated with global sclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis (r: -0.406 and -0.323 respectively; p<0.05) whereas they are positively correlated with spot urine albumin:creatinin ratio, spot urine protein:creatinin ratio and 24 hour urine protein excretion amount (r: 0.322, 0.368 and 0.718 respectively; p<0.05). cT1W calculations also positively correlated with spot urine albumin:creatinin ratio, spot urine protein:creatinin ratio and 24 hour urine protein excretion amount (r: 0.395, 0.363 and 0.654 respectively; p<0.05). This study indicates that multiparametric MRI data correlates closely with clinical and histopathological data among primary glomerulonephritis and amyloidosis patients.