Functional assessment of the kidneys with magnetic resonance imaging and tracer-kinetic modeling

Update Item Information
Publication Type dissertation
School or College College of Engineering
Department Biomedical Engineering
Author Conlin, Christopher Charles
Title Functional assessment of the kidneys with magnetic resonance imaging and tracer-kinetic modeling
Date 2019
Description Over 30 million Americans suffer from renal disorders such as chronic kidney disease, and millions more are at risk of developing renal disorders in their lifetime. Accurate assessment of renal function is critical for effective prevention and clinical management of renal diseases that will ultimately progress to kidney failure. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is an important metric of renal function that can be accurately determined using magnetic resonance (MR) renography. However, the clinical application of MR renography is limited by a lack of efficient processing tools, particularly for image registration. Tissue perfusion is another aspect of renal function that shows promise for the assessment of a number of renal diseases, but currently established MR imaging (MRI) methods for measuring perfusion require the injection of potentially-toxic exogenous contrast agents. Arterial spin labeling (ASL) is an MRI technique that allows for noninvasive measurement of renal perfusion through magnetic-labeling of blood for use as an endogenous tracer. However, perfusion quantification is difficult with ASL due to inherently low signal-to-noise ratio and a dependence on underlying tissue parameters that are unknown a priori. This dissertation presents research conducted to improve the MRI assessment of renal function by simplifying the measurement of GFR and other functional parameters from MR renography data and by providing a robust method for quantifying renal perfusion with ASL. An efficient postprocessing tool is described that significantly reduces the time and effort required to assess renal function with MR renography, thereby increasing the feasibility of this technique in a clinical setting. An ASL method is outlined that enables accurate measurement of renal perfusion in sensitive patient populations for which exogenous contrast agents are contraindicated, and that allows for unrestricted exploratory examinations of kidney function. Finally, an experiment is described wherein this ASL method was applied to measure changes in renal perfusion during the development of glomerular fibrosis in a rat glomerulonephritis model.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Dissertation Name Doctor of Philosophy
Language eng
Rights Management (c) Christopher Charles Conlin
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s62c4vg2
Setname ir_etd
ID 1678748
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s62c4vg2
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