Evaluation of Basal Ganglia in Paediatric Patients With Primary Nephrotic Syndrome by Brain Magnetic Resonance Histogram Analysis.

Background: Primary nephrotic syndrome is an important cause of chronic renal failure in childhood. Important neuronal complications may develop during the disease.

Aims: This study aims to demonstrate basal ganglia involvement in children with nephrotic syndrome by texture analysis.

Methods: Brain MRI images of 22 paediatric patients with primary nephrotic syndrome and 40 healthy children of similar age groups were analysed. Brain MRI T2-weighted images were extracted from the thalamus, lentiform nucleus and nucleus caudatus and texture analysis was performed.

Results: The images of 22 children with primary nephrotic syndrome and 40 children in the control group were evaluated. There were no notable distinctions identified in terms of age and gender between the patient and control groups (P value 0,410; 0,516, respectively). Accordingly, a significant difference was found between mean, 1.P, 10.P, 50.P, 90.P, 99.P values of histogram parameters obtained from thalamus (P values were 0.001; 0.000; 0.001; 0.002; 0.004; 0.009, respectively). A significant difference was found between mean, 1.P, 10.P, 50.P, 90.P, 99.P values of histogram parameters obtained from lentiform nuclei (P values were 0.031; 0.019; 0.006; 0.006; 0.003; 0.003; 0.001; 0.002, respectively). A significant difference was found between the mean, 1.P, 10.P, 50.P, 90.P, 99.P values of the histogram parameters obtained from the nucleus caudatus (P values 0,002; 0,005; 0,002; 0,002; 0,002; 0,003; 0,003, respectively).

Conclusion: Texture analysis may be helpful in demonstrating brain parenchymal involvement in paediatric patients with primary nephrotic syndrome by showing changes that are not recognised on conventional images.