Re-Establishing Brain Networks in Patients with ESRD after Successful Kidney Transplantation

Background and objectives

Cognition in ESRD may be improved by kidney transplantation, but mechanisms are unclear. We explored patterns of resting-state networks with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging among patients with ESRD before and after kidney transplantation.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

Thirty-seven patients with ESRD scheduled for kidney transplantation and 22 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were imaged before and 1 and 6 months after kidney transplantation. Functional connectivity of seven resting-state subnetworks was evaluated: default mode network, dorsal attention network, central executive network, self-referential network, sensorimotor network, visual network, and auditory network. Mixed effects models tested associations of ESRD, kidney transplantation, and neuropsychological measurements with functional connectivity.

Results

Compared with controls, pretransplant patients showed abnormal functional connectivity in six subnetworks. Compared with pretransplant patients, increased functional connectivity was observed in the default mode network, the dorsal attention network, the central executive network, the sensorimotor network, the auditory network, and the visual network 1 and 6 months after kidney transplantation (P=0.01). Six months after kidney transplantation, no significant difference in functional connectivity was observed for the dorsal attention network, the central executive network, the auditory network, or the visual network between patients and controls. Default mode network and sensorimotor network remained significantly different from those in controls when assessed 6 months after kidney transplantation. A relationship between functional connectivity and neuropsychological measurements was found in specific brain regions of some brain networks.

Conclusions

The recovery patterns of resting-state subnetworks vary after kidney transplantation. The dorsal attention network, the central executive network, the auditory network, and the visual network recovered to normal levels, whereas the default mode network and the sensorimotor network did not recover completely 6 months after kidney transplantation. Neural resting-state functional connectivity was lower among patients with ESRD compared with control subjects, but it significantly improved with kidney transplantation. Resting-state subnetworks exhibited variable recovery, in some cases to levels that were no longer significantly different from those of normal controls.

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