Abstract Details

Title Differential Associations of Kidney Function with Cerebral Gray and White Matter Tissue Health in Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Topic General Neurology

Presentation(s) S8 - General Neurology: Clinical Treatment and Practice (4:30 PM-4:42 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 006

Background Recent studies have found that the impairment of kidney function had a significant impact on cerebrovascular diseases, but the relationship between kidney function and the early-stage structural brain changes is unclear.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the association of kidney function with structural gray matter and white matter alterations.

Design/Methods We included 974 participants with a mean age of 56.2 years (36.8% men) from the population-based Shunyi Study. The kidney function was measured by the albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Cortical thickness was quantified by Freesurfer, a fully automated structural MRI image preprocessing technique. The microstructural integrity of brain white matter was assessed by the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method. Multiple linear regression models, adjusted for age, sex, and cardiovascular risk factors, were used to investigate the association of kidney function with brain gray and white matter microstructure.

Results

Participants had median ACR of 9.8 mg/g and average eGFR of 93.4 mL/min/1.73m². Higher ACR levels were correlated with worse white matter microstructural integrity, which was reflected as lower fractional anisotropy (β value=-0.138, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [-0.186, -0.089], p value<0.001) and higher mean diffusivity (β value=0.129, 95% CI: [0.082, 0.175], p value<0.001). Similarly, lower eGFR levels was associated with lower fractional anisotropy (β value=0.008, 95% CI: [0.003, 0.012], p value= 0.001) and higher mean diffusivity (β value=-0.007, 95% CI: [-0.011, -0.003], p value= 0.001). We found no significant association between eGFR levels and global cerebral cortical thickness (β value=0.002, 95% CI: [-0.004, 0.007], p value= 0.558). However, ACR levels were significantly correlated with cerebral cortical thickness (β value=-0.115, 95% CI: [-0.173, -0.057], p value<0.001).

Conclusions Reduced kidney function is associated with early structural brain changes. Our findings indicate that eGFR and ACR might represent different brain pathological changes in patients with impaired kidney function.

Authors/Disclosures
Mei-jun Shu PRESENTER	Mei-jun Shu has nothing to disclose.
Ding-Ding Zhang	No disclosure on file
Fei Han	No disclosure on file
	No disclosure on file
Jun Ni	No disclosure on file
Ming Yao	No disclosure on file
Shu-Yang Zhang	No disclosure on file
Li-Ying Cui	No disclosure on file
Zheng-Yu Jin	No disclosure on file
Yi-Cheng Zhu, MD, PhD (Peking Union Medical College Hospital)	Dr. Zhu has nothing to disclose.