Abstract
To 1) investigate the morphological brain-tissue changes in patients with dialysis- and non-dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD); 2) analyze the effects of CKD on whole-brain cortical thickness, cortical volume, surface area, and surface curvature; and 3) analyze the correlation of these changes with clinical and biochemical indices. This study included normal controls (NCs, n = 34) and patients with CKD who were divided into dialysis (dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease [DD-CKD], n = 26) and non-dialysis (non-dialysis patients who underwent cranial magnetic resonance imaging scans [NDD-CKD], n = 26) groups. Cortical thickness, volume, surface area, and surface curvature in each group were calculated using FreeSurfer software. Brain morphological indicators with statistical differences were correlated with clinical and biochemical indicators. Patients with CKD exhibited a significant and widespread decrease in cortical thickness and volume compared with NCs. Among the brain regions associated with higher neural activity, patients with CKD exhibited more significant morphological changes in the paracentral gyrus, transverse temporal gyrus, and lateral occipital cortex than in other brain regions. Cortical thickness and volume in patients with CKD correlated with blood pressure, lipid, hemoglobin, creatinine, and urea nitrogen levels. The extent of brain atrophy was further increased in the DD-CKD group compared with that in the NDD-CKD group. Patients with CKD potentially exhibit a certain degree of structural brain-tissue imaging changes, with morphological changes more pronounced in patients with DD-CKD, suggesting that blood urea nitrogen and dialysis may be influential factors in brain morphological changes in patients with CKD.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Huan Yu, Chaoyang Zhang, Yan Cai, Ning Wu, Xiuqin Jia, Jiaojiao Wu, Feng Shi, Rui Hua, and Qi Yang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Huan Yu and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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This study was conducted in accordance with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments was approved by the Ethics Committee of Liangxiang Hospital of Capital Medical University (date of approval: May 8, 2021; approval number: 2016126).
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Yu, H., Zhang, C., Cai, Y. et al. Morphological brain alterations in dialysis- and non-dialysis-dependent patients with chronic kidney disease. Metab Brain Dis 38, 1311–1321 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-022-01150-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-022-01150-x