David Joseph Niles1, Sean B. Fain1,2,
Nathan S. Artz1, Yin Huang1, Karl K. Vigen2,
Arjang Djamali3, Thomas M. Grist1,2, Elizabeth A.
Sadowski2
1Medical Physics,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 2Radiology,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; 3Nephrology,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States
Routine monitoring of renal function following transplantation is important for prolonging allograft viability. In this study, BOLD MRI was used to measure renal oxygenation in matched donor-recipient pairs up to one year post-transplantation. An 11 % reduction of R2* was observed in the medulla of transplanted kidneys 3 months post-transplantation (p < 0.01), indicating increased oxygen availability. The cortex of the transplanted kidney and the donors remaining kidneys showed no change of R2* after 3 months. Additional measurements in this ongoing study will be used to assess oxygenation one and two years post-transplantation.