Assessing Vascular Markers of Diabetic Disease Progression Through Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound

Diabetic disease progression, resulting in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) increases the risk of kidney failure and is a strong predictor for patient mortality. Early detection of DKD could mitigate risks associated with DKD progression, but currently there are no well-established markers that serve this purpose. Healthy, insulin-resistant, and diabetic non-human primates (vervets) were imaged using contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to quantify kidney perfusion and evaluate CEUS as an early detection method. Time-intensity curve (TIC) data generated by capturing microbubble perfusion in the kidney were collected along with data on vervet demographics. The wash-out slope (WOS) for diabetic vervets was significantly steeper than the WOS for healthy vervets (p < 0.05), indicating faster microbubble clearance from the kidney in diabetic vervets. Furthermore, fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were significantly different between healthy and diabetic vervets (p < 0.0001), which may relate to the differences seen in WOS. Other TIC metrics, such as area under the curve (AUC) and peak enhancement (PE) did not reveal significant differences between groups. Overall, CEUS shows potential as a method for detecting changes in blood perfusion that are indicative of DKD progression, but further research is necessary to address current limitations with the technique.