Throw the eyes of MRI: What do you know about chronic lithium-induced nephropathy?

Congress:

ECR 2020

Poster Number:

C-10011

Type:

Educational Exhibit

Keywords:

Performed at one institution, Not applicable, Retrospective, Toxicity, Imaging sequences, Education, MR, MR physics, Kidney, Abdomen, Abdominal Viscera

Authors:

M. A. Calota, L. Males, A. Khalil, P. fernandez; Paris/FR

DOI:

10.26044/ecr2020/C-10011

DOI-Link:

https://dx.doi.org/10.26044/ecr2020/C-10011

Conclusion

Chronic tubulo-interstitial nephropathy is the main form of chronic renal disease associated with lithium therapy. The particularity of this tubulo-interstitial condition is micro cysts formation located both in the kidney’s cortex and medulla.

Due to the necessity of evaluating small cystic lesions, an MRI protocol with sequences well adapted to imaging non-circulating liquid structures was needed. Thus, the best MRI sequences in evaluating chronic lithium-induced nephropathy are those using a long echo time (T2 weighted images) which highlight the cystic lesions as hyper intense round lesions: T2 SSFSE and SSFSE TE long.

SSFSE TE long is able to better appreciate the extend of the disease and even diagnose the early stages that can be missed by T2 SSFSE.