Analysis of MRI Data Monitoring the Treatment of Polycystic Kidney Disease in a Preclinical Mouse Model

Stathis Hadjidemetriou¹, Wilfried Reichardt¹, Juergen Hennig¹, Martin Buechert², Dominik von Elverfeldt¹

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is characterized by the growth of kidney cysts and the eventual kidney failure in humans. A treatment for ADPKD is not yet available. Treatment development involves preclinical studies with a mouse ADPKD model. Such mice have been monitored longitudinally with high field animal MRI. In this work the mouse kidneys are segmented with an unsupervised, reliable, and reproducible method. A region of interest is identified and analyzed for its statistics and for kidney geometry. This information is incorporated into the graph cuts algorithm that delineates the kidneys. Extensive validation is presented.