Fig. 5

Distribution of renal ADC values from the superficial-cortex zone to the inner-medullary zone. We detected and compared the entire renal-parenchyma ADC values in both LN patients and healthy volunteers. Cherry-red circles and chartreuse squares indicate ADC values for patients with LN and healthy volunteers, respectively. The ADC values in LN patients were lower than those in healthy volunteers, especially in the superficial-cortical zone. However, this tendency was reversed in the deep-medullary zone (Panel a). Blue-resupinate triangles, mauve squares and stone-yellow circles stands denote type-III, type-IV and type-V LN, respectively. Type-III LN patients had the lowest cortical ADC values. Subsequently, ADC values were slightly increased in the deep-medullary zone. Accompanied by the increment of depth of the renal parenchyma, ADC values in type-IV LN patients exhibited a V-like or U-like shape. In contrast, the distribution of renal ADC values in type-V LN patients had a similar shape with that of healthy volunteers (Panel b). All of data in figure expressed as mean ± SEM