Thölking G, Schuette-Nuetgen K, Kentrup D, Pawelski H, Reuter S. Imaging-based diagnosis of acute renal allograft rejection. World J Transplant 2016; 6(1): 174-182 [PMID: 27011915 DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v6.i1.174]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Stefan Reuter, MD, Department of Medicine D, Division of General Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Rheumatology, University Hospital of Münster, Domagkstraße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany. sreuter@uni-muenster.de
Research Domain of This Article
Transplantation
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Transplant. Mar 24, 2016; 6(1): 174-182 Published online Mar 24, 2016. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v6.i1.174
Imaging-based diagnosis of acute renal allograft rejection
Gerold Thölking, Katharina Schuette-Nuetgen, Dominik Kentrup, Helga Pawelski, Stefan Reuter
Gerold Thölking, Katharina Schuette-Nuetgen, Dominik Kentrup, Helga Pawelski, Stefan Reuter, Department of Medicine D, Division of General Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Rheumatology, University Hospital of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
Author contributions: Thölking G wrote the paper; Schuette-Nuetgen K performed research and wrote the paper; Kentrup D performed research, analyzed data and wrote the paper; Pawelski H performed research and analyzed data; Reuter S designed research and wrote the paper.
Supported by The Collaborative Research Centre 656 (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB656, Projects C7 and PM12 and 21); and Innovative Medizinische Forschung, Medical Faculty, University of Münster, No. IRE121102.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Stefan Reuter, MD, Department of Medicine D, Division of General Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Rheumatology, University Hospital of Münster, Domagkstraße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany. sreuter@uni-muenster.de
Telephone: +49-251-8350606 Fax: +49-251-8356973
Received: June 22, 2015 Peer-review started: June 23, 2015 First decision: August 14, 2015 Revised: November 13, 2015 Accepted: December 1, 2015 Article in press: December 2, 2015 Published online: March 24, 2016 Processing time: 272 Days and 8.8 Hours
Abstract
Kidney transplantation is the best available treatment for patients with end stage renal disease. Despite the introduction of effective immunosuppressant drugs, episodes of acute allograft rejection still endanger graft survival. Since efficient treatment of acute rejection is available, rapid diagnosis of this reversible graft injury is essential. For diagnosis of rejection, invasive core needle biopsy of the graft is the “gold-standard”. However, biopsy carries the risk of significant graft injury and is not immediately feasible in patients taking anticoagulants. Therefore, a non-invasive tool assessing the whole organ for specific and fast detection of acute allograft rejection is desirable. We herein review current imaging-based state of the art approaches for non-invasive diagnostics of acute renal transplant rejection. We especially focus on new positron emission tomography-based as well as targeted ultrasound-based methods.
Core tip: Kidney transplantation is the best available treatment for patients with end stage renal disease. For diagnosis of rejection, invasive core needle biopsy of the graft is currently considered as the “gold-standard”. As biopsies carry the risk of significant graft injury, a non-invasive, specific and fast tool screening the whole graft for acute rejection is desirable. We herein review current imaging-based state of the art approaches for non-invasive diagnosis of acute kidney allograft rejection, focussing particularly on new positron emission tomography-based as well as targeted ultrasound-based methods.
