Magnetic Resonance Nephrourographic Techniques and Applications

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease is a significant public health problem, and a comprehensive evaluation of renal disease often requires accurate evaluation of both kidney structure and function. Magnetic resonance (MR) nephrourography refers to newly developed imaging techniques that have the ability to provide a quantitative assessment of renal function, especially glomerular filtration rate and renal blood flow. Our review outlines several different methodologies that are present in the literature and also details the specifics of our own methods for renal imaging. Though varied, all MR imaging methods use the common steps of image acquisition, image postprocessing, and tracer kinetics modeling of the processed image data. The optimal methodology should be practical and based primarily on simplicity, speed, and reproducibility. The combination of anatomic and quantitative functional information of the kidneys provided by MR imaging allows for a safe, comprehensive evaluation of renal disease, with particular utility in the settings of urinary tract obstruction and renal transplantation.

Basic Science Input into Clinical MR Modalities

“…Renal 1 H MRI, including DCE-MRI methods, also termed MR urography (MRU) or MR nephrourography (MRNU) have been extensively developed in the last two decades, aiming at optimizing clinical renal assessment (Chandarana and Lee, 2009;Kalb et al, 2009 and references cited therein). The advantages of MRU include high soft tissue contrast, high spatial resolution, relatively short acquisition time imaging, and eliminating the use of ionizing radiation.…”