Rapid measurement of renal artery blood flow with ungated spiral phase-contrast MRI.
OBJECTIVE
To verify the potential of ungated spiral phase-contrast (USPC), which has been shown to provide accurate and reproducible time-averaged measurements of pulsatile flow, for rapid measurement of renal artery blood flow (RABF) in vivo.


METHODS
The RABF rates of 11 normal human subjects and one patient with renal failure were measured with USPC within six seconds.


RESULTS
Rapid USPC scans produced reproducible RABF measurements (SD < or = 9%) that agreed with the normal RABF rates known from the literature. The RABF rates of the patient with renal failure were substantially less (<50-65%) than the normal RABF rates.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that it is now possible to obtain rapid and consistent RABF measurements within six seconds with USPC.
Park
Jong B
JB
Magnetic Resonance Systems Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. piquant@mrsrl.stanford.edu
Santos
Juan M
JM
Hargreaves
Brian A
BA
Nayak
Krishna S
KS
Sommer
Graham
G
Hu
Bob S
BS
Nishimura
Dwight G
DG
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D012077:Renal Artery / Q000502:physiology*; D051437:Renal Insufficiency / Q000503:physiopathology