Measurement of Murine Single‐Kidney Glomerular Filtration Rate Using Dynamic Contrast‐Enhanced MRI

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine Vol. 79; no. 6; pp. 2935 - 2943
• Main Authors: Jiang, Kai, Tang, Hui, Mishra, Prasanna K., Macura, Slobodan I., Lerman, Lilach O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2018
• Subjects: compartmental model; Correlation analysis; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI; Fluorescein; Gadolinium; Glomerular filtration rate; Inulin; Kidneys; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mice; Perfusion; Relaxation time; Renal artery; renal artery stenosis; renal perfusion; Rodents; Spin labeling; Stenosis; renal perfusion; renal artery stenosis; glomerular filtration rate; compartmental model; dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26955

Purpose To develop and validate a method for measuring murine single‐kidney glomerular filtration rate (GFR) using dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI (DCE‐MRI). Methods This prospective study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. A fast longitudinal relaxation time (T1) measurement method was implemented to capture gadolinium dynamics (1 s/scan), and a modified two‐compartment model was developed to quantify GFR as well as renal perfusion using 16.4T MRI in mice 2 weeks after unilateral renal artery stenosis (RAS, n = 6) or sham (n = 8) surgeries. This approach was validated by comparing model‐derived GFR and perfusion to those obtained by fluorescein isothiocyanante (FITC)‐inulin clearance and arterial spin labeling (ASL), respectively, using the Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlations and Bland‐Altman analysis. Results The compartmental model provided a good fitting to measured gadolinium dynamics in both normal and RAS kidneys. The proposed DCE‐MRI method offered assessment of single‐kidney GFR and perfusion, comparable to the FITC‐inulin clearance (Pearson's correlation coefficient r = 0.95 and Spearman's correlation coefficient ρ = 0.94, P < 0.0001, and mean difference −7.0 ± 11.0 μL/min) and ASL (r = 0.92 and ρ = 0.84, P < 0.0001, and mean difference 4.4 ± 66.1 mL/100 g/min) methods. Conclusion The proposed DCE‐MRI method may be useful for reliable noninvasive measurements of single‐kidney GFR and perfusion in mice. Magn Reson Med 79:2935–2943, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.