C. Chad Quarles1, Feng Weng1, Mohammed Tantawy1, Rosie Jiang2, Keiko Takahashi2, Chuan-Ming Hao2, Todd Peterson1, Raymond Harris2, Takamune Takahashi2
1Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 2O'Brien Mouse Kidney Physiology and Disease Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
Renal relative blood volume (RBV) measurements could provide a valuable tool to characterize abnormal renal perfusion in mouse models of kidney disease. We optimized MRI methods for spin-echo based RBV mapping in mouse kidneys and assessed the reproducibility of RBV measurements acquired on consecutive days. The mean kidney RBV measured on consecutive days was 19.97 1.50 and 19.86 1.62, yielding a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.94, indicating that this approach is highly reproducible. Interestingly, the use of a spin-echo sequence preferentially weighted towards microvessels, revealed that microvascular RBV within regions of the medulla were higher than that found in cortex.