Neuroimaging and End Stage Renal Disease

Brain impairment is one of the common complications of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The patients always present with various cerebrovascular diseases, cognitive impairment and sensorimotor abnormalities, with morbidity over 40%. However, the risk factors and the neural mechanisms of brain injury in ESRD is still unclear. Identifying the risk factors and finding objective and reliable biomarkers of brain impairment in the process of ESRD is an important clinical problem. At the same time, to find the neural mechanisms of brain damage in ESRD is a serious scientific problem. Neuroimaging techniques based on multi-modal magnetic resonance image (MRI) can detect the structural and functional brain abnormalities objectively and sensitively, especially for those without obvious clinical symptoms. Through the deep analysis of brain MRI data, it is helpful for studying the neural mechanisms of brain damage in ESRD in the perspective from brain science. In addition, the accumulation of uremic toxins is supposed to play an essential role in the brain impairment of ESRD. The metabolomics is a useful method in detecting the uremic toxins with different molecular weights. In this study, the investigators will collect the brain MRI, serum metabolomics and cognitive assessment data before the dialysis initiation, and then will make prospective longitudinal observation of changes of brain impairment during the dialysis. Thus, combining analysis of neuroimaging and metabolomics will provide more information for finding the risk factors and imaging diagnostic markers of brain impairment in ESRD. It will also helpful for explaining the underlying mechanisms of brain impairment in ESRD, providing an objective basis for clinical diagnosis and prediction of the prognosis.