MEMRI in kidney disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) in kidney disease: the MEMRI-Kidney studies
IRAS ID
330986
Contact name
Neeraj Dhaun
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Kidney disease affects 1 in 10 people. It encompasses acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic disease (CKD), transplantation and inflammatory diseases such as vasculitis. Cardiovascular disease is an important complication in patients with kidney disease and it is the leading cause of mortality in those with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Although most patients who suffer an episode of AKI will fully recover, there are many who will develop kidney and heart disease in the future, and we know that those with CKD, transplant and vasculitis patients have increased cardiovascular risk too. At present we cannot identify which patients will develop these problems.
This study will explore the potential of manganese enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a new imaging approach. Healthy cells take up manganese whereas unhealthy cells (for example in kidneys and heart) do not. We believe that patients who have insults to their kidneys who are at increased risk of kidney and heart disease in the future will take up less manganese into their kidney and heart cells.
We plan to recruit 20 subjects in different cohorts of kidney disease (AKI, transplantation, transplant rejection, vasculitis presentation), and healthy. Patients will undergo an MRI scan to look at the kidney and the heart. We will do other tests (24h blood pressure, blood and urine tests) to give us more information about their future risk of heart disease. Some subjects will then have repeat investigations at 3-6 months.
We think that the patients with an acute insults will have less manganese uptake in the kidneys and heart and that this will improve with recovery, however, will remain low in those at risk of developing kidney or cardiovascular disease. These will be the first studies of manganese enhanced MRI in kidney disease.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
23/WA/0276
Date of REC Opinion
6 Oct 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion