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The reproducibility was high for both RABF and R2 * in patients and controls, particularly in the cortex. Inhalation of 100% oxygen reduced medullary R2 *.

Objective Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) is a non-invasive method used to compute blood flow velocity and volume. This systematic review aims to discuss the current status of renal PC-MRI and provide practical recommendations which could inform future clinical studies and its adoption in clinical practice. Methodology A comprehensive search of all the PC-MRI studies in human healthy subjects or patients related to the kidneys was performed. Results A total of 39 studies were included in which PC-MRI was used to measure renal blood flow (RBF) alongside other derivative hemodynamic parameters. PC-MRI generally showed good correlation with gold standard methods of RBF measurement, both in vitro and in vivo, and good reproducibility. Despite PC-MRI not being routinely used in clinical practice, there are several clinical studies showing its potential to support diagnosis and monitoring of renal diseases, in particular renovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. Discussion Renal PC-MRI shows promise as a non-invasive technique to reliably measure RBF, both in healthy volunteers and in patients with renal disease. Future multicentric studies are needed to provide definitive normative ranges and to demonstrate the clinical potential of PC-MRI, likely as part of a multi-parametric renal MRI protocol.

Central blood pressure (BP) can be assessed noninvasively based on radial tonometry and may potentially be a better predictor of clinical outcome than brachial BP. However, the validity of noninvasively obtained estimates has never been examined in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Here we compared invasive aortic systolic BP (SBP) with estimated central SBP obtained by radial artery tonometry and examined the influence of renal function and arterial stiffness on this relationship. We evaluated 83 patients with stage 3 to 5 CKD (mean estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR] 30 ml/min/1.73 m(2)) and 41 controls without renal disease undergoing scheduled coronary angiography. BP in the ascending aorta was measured through the angiography catheter and simultaneously estimated using radial tonometry. The mean difference between estimated central and aortic SBP was -13.2 (95% confidence interval -14.9 to -11.4) mm Hg. Arterial stiffness was evaluated by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) and was significantly increased in CKD patients compared with (versus) control patients (mean 10.7 vs. 9.3 m/s). The difference in BP significantly increased 1.0 mm Hg for every 10 ml/min decrease in eGFR and by 1.6 mm Hg per 1 m/s increase in cfPWV. Using multivariate regression analysis including both eGFR and cfPWV, the difference between estimated central and invasive aortic SBP was significantly increased by 0.7 mm Hg. For the entire cohort brachial SBP significantly better reflected invasive SBP than estimated SBP. Thus, tonometry-based estimates of central BP progressively underestimate invasive central SBP with decreasing renal function and increasing arterial stiffness in CKD patients.