Andreas Pohlmann1, Lajos Marko2,
Babette Wagenhaus1, Uwe Hoff3, Erdmann Seeliger4,
Dominik N Mueller5, Thoralf Niendorf1
1Berlin Ultrahigh Field
Facility, Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany; 2Experimental
& Clinical Research Center , Charit University Medicine, Berlin,
Germany; 3Clinic for Nephrology, Charit University Medicine,
Berlin, Germany; 4Institute of Vegetative Physiology, Charit
University Medicine, Berlin, Germany; 5Experimental & Clinical
Research Center, Charit University Medicine, Berlin, Germany
Renal medullary hypoperfusion and hypoxia play a key role in acute kidney injury (AKI). Established methods to assess renal hemodynamics and oxygenation in vivo are limited to short time periods and/or probing only small regions. MRI allows assessing tissue oxygenation and oedema for the entire kidneys, repeatedly. We demonstrated the feasibility of characterizing alterations in renal hemodynamics and oxygenation under (patho)physiological conditions such as renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (I-R). Kidneys that underwent I-R showed strong changes of contrast (T2w) in the cortex and medulla. T2*-mapping showed equally dramatic changes quantitatively.