Renal Arterial Blood Flow Measurement by Breath-Held MRI: Accuracy in Phantom Scans and Reproducibility in Healthy Subjects

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Samuel Dambreville, Georgia Institute of Technology; Arlene Chapman, Emory University; Vicente Torres, Mayo Clinic; Bernard F. King, Mayo Clinic; Ashley K. Wallin, Georgia Institute of Technology; David H. Frakes, Arizona State University; Ajit Yoganathan, Emory University; Sameera R. Wijayawardana, Emory University; Kirk Easley, Emory University; Kyongtae Bae, University of Pittsburgh; Marijn Brummer, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-04-01
• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mrm.22278
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
• ISSN: 0740-3194
• Volume: 63
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 940
• End Page: 950
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported in part by grants UO1-DK56956 and MO1-RR00039 from the NIH.
• Keywords: QUANTITATION; CLEARANCE; flow validation; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; VELOCITY; quantitative flow; kidney imaging; renal blood flow; phase velocity imaging; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; Science & Technology
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Radiology

Abstract

This study evaluates reliability of current technology for measurement of renal arterial blood flow by breath-held velocity-encoded MRI. Overall accuracy was determined by comparing MRI measurements with known flow in controlled flow loop phantom studies. Measurements using prospective and retrospective gating methods were compared in phantom studies with pulsatile flow, not revealing significant differences. Phantom study results showed good accuracy with deviations from true flow consistently below 13% for vessel diameters 3 mm and above. Reproducibility in human subjects was evaluated by repeat studies in six healthy control subjects, comparing immediate repetition of the scan, repetition of the scan plane scouting, and week-to-week variation in repeated studies. The standard deviation in the four-week protocol of repeated in-vivo measurements of single-kidney renal flow in normal subjects was 59.7 ml/min, corresponding with an average coefficient of variation of 10.55%. Comparison of RBF reproducibility with and without gadolinium contrast showed no significant differences in mean or standard deviation. A breakdown among error components showed corresponding marginal standard deviations (coefficients of variation) 23.8 ml/min (4.21%) for immediate repetition of the breath-held flow scan, 39.13 ml/min (6.90%) for repeated plane scouting, and 40.76 ml/min (7.20%) for weekly fluctuations in renal blood flow.