Mike
Notohamiprodjo1, 2, Hersh Chandarana3, Artem
Mikheev2, Jose Garcia Raya2, John Grinstead4,
Thorsten Feiweier4, Henry Rusinek3, Vivian S. Lee,
35, Eric E. Sigmund2
1Department of Clinical Radiology, University Hospitals Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany; 2Center for Biomedical Imaging, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York City, NY, United States; 3Department of Radiology, NYU Langone Medical Center; 4Siemens Healthcare; 5University of Utah Health Care
We used a combined IVIM-DTI methodology to resolve the ambiguity of renal diffusion anisotropy by distinguishing structural from flow effects. We observe a significantly higher perfusion-fraction (fp) of the cortex than medulla, contrary to previous studies finding comparable fp in both tissues. Higher medullary FA at the low b-value range and high directional variance of medullary fp suggest anisotropy of the perfusion-fraction. Similarly, both flow and diffusion appear to contribute to the diffusion anisotropy of the renal medulla. This novel method may be useful in separating decreased tubular flow from irreversible structural tubular damage, e.g. in diabetic nephropathy.