The fractal and textural analysis of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients

Abstract

BackgroundFractal dimension is an indirect indicator of signal complexity. The aim was to evaluate the fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli in obese and non-obese patients with glomerular diseases and association of these parameters with clinical features.MethodsThe study included 125 patients mean age 46 ± 15.2 years: obese (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2—63 patients) and non-obese (BMI 0.05) compared to non-obese. Mean value of COR (t = 0.108) and IDM (t = 0.185) were almost the same in two patient groups. Obese patients had higher value of lacunarity (t = 0.499) in comparison with non-obese, the mean value of fractal dimension (t = 0.225) was almost the same in two groups. Significantly positive association between variance and creatinine concentration (r = 0.499, P < 0.01), significantly negative association between variance and CKD-EPI (r = -0.448, P < 0.01), variance and sex (r = -0.339, P < 0.05) were found.ConclusionsVariance showed significant correlation with serum creatinine concentration, CKD-EPI and sex. CON and IDM were significantly related to sex. Fractal and textural analysis parameters of glomeruli could become a supplement to histopathologic analysis of kidney tissue.

Keywords

• Fractal analysis
• Textural analysis
• Glomerulus
• Obesity