MR imaging for assessment of renal fibrosis (v1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Testing the efficacy of MRI imaging for assessment of renal fibrosis
IRAS ID
155306
Contact name
Neil Sheerin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is common, affecting up to 10% of the population. It is associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality and a risk of progression to kidney failure. Not all patients will progress to renal failure, but those that do require either dialysis or transplantation, with huge personal and health care costs. Biopsies from patients with progressive disease have evidence of scarring, with fibrous tissue replacing the functioning units of the kidney. Treatments to stop fibrosis potentially would have a significant impact but development of new drugs has been slow, partly because it is difficult to monitor the level of fibrosis without biopsy.
In this project we propose to test whether MRI scans can be used to measure kidney fibrosis, and to gauge the relationship between extent of fibrosis and renal function.We will recruit patients into two cohorts: moderate kidney impairment with significant fibrosis (Group 1: Moderate), and early renal impairment resultant from Type 1 diabetes (Group 2: Early). We will also recruit healthy volunteers as a control group (Group 3: Control). Twelve participants will be recruited to each group and asked to have a MRI scan. This scan will last about 1 hour and will allow us to make a series of measurements that will then be related to findings from renal biopsy samples (Group 1 only, biopsy performed previously as part of standard clinical care) and other clinical measurements of disease severity (eGFR measurements, Groups 1, 2 and 3).
This study will determine whether state of the art MRI technologies can provide a quantitative assessment of the extent of renal fibrosis, and therefore determine their efficacy as non-invasive measures of fibrosis for use in future clinical studies.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/1120
Date of REC Opinion
29 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion