The instant impact of a single hemodialysis session on brain morphological measurements in patients with end-stage renal disease

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the instant impact of hemodialysis (HD) on the cerebral morphological measurements of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients undergoing maintenance HD and twenty-eight age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy control (HC) were included. The HD group and HC group had 3D high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans twice and once, respectively. Both groups underwent neuropsychologic tests. The morphological measurements of structural MRI were measured using CAT12 and these measures were compared among three groups. The relationship between morphological measures and clinical parameters and neuropsychological tests were investigated through multiple regression analysis. RESULTS: Compared to the HC group, the cortical thickness before HD significantly decreased in the bilateral temporal lobe and significantly decreased in the left superior temporal gyrus after HD. The cortical thickness significantly increased in the bilateral temporal lobe, frontal lobe and occipital lobe after HD compared to before HD. The sulcus depth in the bilateral insula, frontal lobe, and parietal lobe after HD significantly increased compared to before HD. No significant differences in sulcus depth between HD and HC were detected. After HD, the cortical thickness of the right parsopercularis was positively correlated with the number connection test-A. Cortical thickness in multiple regions were positively correlated with blood flow velocity and cortical thickness in the left parahippocampal gyrus was negatively correlated with ultrafiltration volume. Patients showed better performance in the digit symbol test and line tracing test after HD compared to before HD, but there were no significant differences in the comparison of neuropsychologic tests between patients and HC. CONCLUSION: The instant morphological changes were captured during a single hemodialysis in HD patients. There was an association between these instant changes in the brain and clinical parameters and neuropsychologic tests. This work implied the instant impact of a single hemodialysis impact on the brain in HD patients.