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Abstract #0446

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) & Tractography for Assessment of Renal Allograft Dysfunction

Katja Hueper1, Marcel Gutberlet1, Dagmar Hartung1, Frank Lehner2, Wilfried Gwinner3, Xiaoqi Ding4, Michael Galanski

1Radiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; 2General, Abdominal & Transplant Surgery, Hannover Medical School; 3Nephrology, Hannover Medical School; 4Neuroradiology, Hannover Medical School


We investigated whether DTI allows for non-invasive detection of functional and structural changes of renal transplants. 15 kidney transplanted patients with different degrees of allograft dysfunction and 13 healthy volunteers were examined using a fat-saturated echo-planar DTI-sequence (1.5 T MAGNETOM Avanto, 6 diffusion directions, b=0,600 s/mm). FA- and ADC-values in the cortex and in the medulla were determined. In transplants FA and ADC were significantly lower in the medulla and in the cortex compared to healthy volunteers. The FA in the medulla correlated with the estimated GFR, thus demonstrating the potential value of DTI in early detecting allograft dysfunction.