High-resolution mouse kidney perfusion imaging by pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling at 11.75T

Purpose Quantitative measure of blood flow provides important information regarding renal function, nephropathies and viability of kidney transplantation. Therefore, a method that would allow quantitative and reliable assessment of the renal microvascular perfusion would be very valuable. Arterial spin labeling Magnetic Resonance Imaging has started to be widely used for human studies. For rodents though, despite the increasing number of transgenic mouse models, renal perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging has been only sparsely reported. This study investigated the use of FAIR (flow‐sensitive alternating inversion recovery) and pseudo‐continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) for mouse renal blood flow measurements. Methods FAIR and pCASL were compared in terms of sensitivity, absolute quantification, reproducibility and flexibility of implementation. Multislice and coronal imaging were also investigated. Studies were performed at 11.75 T with volumic transmitter/receiver radiofrequency coils and fast imaging. Results pCASL demonstrated better experimental flexibility and higher sensitivity compared to FAIR (> +20%). Renal blood flow values in the range of 550–750 mL/100 g/min for the cortex and of 140–230 mL/100 g/min for the medulla, consistent with literature data, were measured. Conclusion pCASL was successfully applied at very high field for mouse renal blood flow measurements, demonstrating high sensitivity, flexibility and multislice imaging capability. pCASL may be considered as a method of choice for mouse kidney perfusion studies. Magn Reson Med 71:1186–1196, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.