title: MRI to assess renal structure and function.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In addition to excellent anatomical depiction, MRI techniques have expanded to study functional aspects of renal physiology, such as renal perfusion, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) or tissue oxygenation. This review will focus on current developments with an emphasis on clinical applicability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The method of GFR determination is largely heterogeneous and still has weaknesses. However, the technique of employing liver disappearance curves has been shown to be accurate in healthy persons and patients with chronic kidney disease. In potential kidney donors, complete evaluation of kidney anatomy and function can be accomplished in a single-stop investigation. Techniques without contrast media can be utilized to measure renal tissue oxygenation (blood oxygen level-dependent MRI) or perfusion (arterial spin labeling) and could aid in the diagnosis and treatment of ischemic renal diseases, such as renal artery stenosis. Diffusion imaging techniques may provide information on spatially restricted water diffusion and tumor cellularity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Functional MRI opens new horizons in studying renal physiology and pathophysiology in vivo. Although extensively utilized in research, labor-intensive postprocessing and lack of standardization currently limit the clinical applicability of functional MRI. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the clinical value of functional magnetic resonance techniques for early discovery and characterization of kidney disease.
authors: Department of Internal Medicine IV, Section of Nephrology and Hypertension, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany. ferruh.artunc@med.uni-tuebingen.de
authors: Ferruh
authors: F
authors: Artunc
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Rossi
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Boss
mesh_terms: D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D012079:Renal Circulation