Background: Echocardiographic examinations have revealed functional cardiac abnormalities in children with chronic kidney disease.
Objective: To assess the feasibility of MRI tissue phase mapping in children and to assess regional left ventricular wall movements in children with chronic kidney disease.
Materials and methods: Twenty pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease (before or after renal transplantation) and 12 healthy controls underwent tissue phase mapping (TPM) to quantify regional left ventricular function through myocardial long (Vz) and short-axis (Vr) velocities at all 3 levels of the left ventricle.
Results: Patients and controls (age: 8 years-20 years) were matched for age, height, weight, gender and heart rate. Patients had higher systolic blood pressure. No patient had left ventricular hypertrophy on MRI or diastolic dysfunction on echocardiography. Fifteen patients underwent tissue Doppler echocardiography, with normal z-scores for mitral early diastolic (VE), late diastolic (VA) and peak systolic (VS) velocities. Throughout all left ventricular levels, peak diastolic Vz and Vr (cm/s) were reduced in patients: Vzbase -10.6 ± 1.9 vs. -13.4 ± 2.0 (P < 0.0003), Vzmid -7.8 ± 1.6 vs. -11 ± 1.5 (P < 0.0001), Vzapex -3.8 ± 1.6 vs. -5.3 ± 1.6 (P = 0.01), Vrbase -4.2 ± 0.8 vs. -4.9 ± 0.7 (P = 0.01), Vrmid -4.7 ± 0.7 vs. -5.4 ± 0.7 (P = 0.01), Vrapex -4.7 ± 1.4 vs. -5.6 ± 1.1 (P = 0.05).
Conclusion: Tissue phase mapping is feasible in children and adolescents. Children with chronic kidney disease show significantly reduced peak diastolic long- and short-axis left ventricular wall velocities, reflecting impaired early diastolic filling. Thus, tissue phase mapping detects chronic kidney disease-related functional myocardial changes before overt left ventricular hypertrophy or echocardiographic diastolic dysfunction occurs.
Keywords: Adolescents; Cardiac imaging technique; Cardio renal syndrome; Chronic renal failure; Left ventricular dysfunction; Magnetic resonance imaging; Tissue phase mapping.