Zohar Milman1, Jonathan Axelrod1, Samuel Heyman2, Nathalie Corchia-Nachmanson1, Rinat Abramovitch1
1The Goldyne Savad Institute of Gene Therapy, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; 2Department of Medicine, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
The use of MRI for the diagnosis of acute and chronic kidney diseases is expanding; however, contrast-enhanced methods are limited due to adverse effects. We studied the feasibility of two MRI-methods: (1) HRI, based on BOLD fMRI, combined with hypercapnic and hyperoxic challenges, for monitoring changes in kidney perfusion, and (2) True-FISP, for monitoring changes in renal morphology, during CKD and AKI progression in mice. True-FISP images revealed clear differences in CKD compared to AKI. HRI maps revealed significantly reduced renal perfusion in both CKD and AKI. Together, these methods may assist in the differentiation and characterization of renal pathologies.