Functional MRI as a Tool for Evaluating Interstitial Fibrosis and Prognosis in Kidney Disease

Background: Kidney fibrosis is a key driver of progression of kidney diseases. Renal biopsies remain the gold-standard approach to specifically diagnose and stage renal fibrosis at present. However, there is a lack of multi-dimensional pictures showing renal function, histology, and imaging of the fibrotic kidney. Summary: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategies have been rapidly evolving during the past couple of decades, especially driven by advances in technology. Recently, several pioneer and remarkable studies demonstrated that advanced functional MRI (fMRI) tools could be useful for the evaluation of kidney fibrosis and progression, which provides more opportunities to benefit from the significant value of fMRI tools for clinical implementation. Key Messages: fMRI will be a novel approach to evaluate interstitial fibrosis and prognosis in kidney disease.