Kyongtae Tyler Bae MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Fang Zhu MD, PhD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Deborah Ann Baumgarten MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Philip J. Kenney MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Bernard F. King MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Louis Herman Wetzel MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Arlene Chapman MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

et al, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Renal cysts in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) may have variable composition of fluid within the cysts and thus appear complex. Although the prevalence of complex cysts appears to increase with the overall burden of renal cysts, no volumetric analysis of complex cysts has been reported. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the volume of complex cysts in relation to the total kidney size, total cyst volume, and clinical history of hematuria.

Multicenter morphometric image analysis is conducted currently in association with the Consortium for Radiologic Imaging Studies in PKD (CRISP). We randomly selected 70 patients (29 men, 41 women; mean age, 33 years) from the CRISP database who had complex cysts on MR images. Pre- and post-gadolinium three-dimensional gradient echo T1 weighted and fast spin echo T2 weighted with fat saturation MR images were obtained. Stereology and region-based thresholding methods were applied to segment and calculate the total volumes of the kidney, renal cysts and complex renal cysts. Renal cysts that did not meet MR criteria for simple cysts, i.e. bright in T2 and dark in T1 were considered to be complex cysts. The volumetric relationship between the complex cysts and the total kidney or total renal cysts was evaluated in all subjects, and in subgroups based on gender and clinical history of hematuria. Because of an extremely skewed distribution, all statistics on kidney cyst volume and total renal volume were subjected to a log transformation.

The volume of complex cysts had a wide range (0.2 to 392.5 mL, a logarithmic transformation mean of 16 mL), and correlated highly with the total kidney volume (r=0.67, P<0.001) and total renal cyst volume (r=0.66, P<0.001). No statistically significant difference (p=0.22) in complex cyst volume was observed between the subjects with (n=25) and without (n=45) history of hematuria, and between men and women (p=0.21).

In ADPKD patients, the burden of complex cysts was highly correlated with the total kidney size and the total cyst burden, but was not significantly associated with gender and clinical history of hematuria.

Bae, K, Zhu, F, Baumgarten, D, Kenney, P, King, B, Wetzel, L, Chapman, A, et al, , MRI-based Volumetric Evaluation of Complex Cysts in Patients with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease.  Radiological Society of North America 2005 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 27 - December 2, 2005 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2005/4415176.html