Diffusion weighted, intravoxel incoherent motion, diffusion kurtosis tensor MR imaging in chronic kidney disease: correlations with histology

Noninvasive, repeatable and accurate biomarkers to identify renal histological changes for tailoring treatment and evaluating renal prognosis are demanded. In this study, we aimed to compare and probe correlations of parameters derived from standard DWI and its extending models including IVIM, DTI, and DKTI with the pathological and functional alterations in CKD. We found that the corrected diffusion-related indices, including cortical and medullary D and MD, as well as medullary FA were superior to ADC, perfusion-related and kurtosis indices for evaluating alterations of renal pathology and function in CKD patients, and these metrics were also correlated with eGFR and Scr.