Insight into Kidney Function and Microstructure Through Renal MRI—Review of the Literature

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) represents a growing medical, diagnostic and social challenge, and it is estimated to effect 8.5-9.8% of the global population and requires expensive modes of treatment, such as hemodialysis or renal transplants. Currently, a diagnosis of CKD is set based on the level of creatinine in the blood, which is the gold standard of renal function diagnostics. Unfortunately, decrease in GFR is secondary to damage of the kidney parenchyma and indicates that the best time to start more aggressive treatment has already passed. Therefore, several non-invasive methods have been proposed for predicting increased risk of CKD progression; however, in most of the cases kidney biopsy is essential. Currently, the greatest hopes for a method that can confirm CKD are associated with the development of MRI, the most tissue-specific imaging method, and it is already proven to be capable to detect inflammatory and edematous changes, fibrosis, as well as perfusion and oxygenation disturbances. Therefore, in our manuscript we decided to present up-to-date knowledge about kidney MRI from a clinical point of view.