Chan, R;
von Deuster, C;
Stoeck, C;
Harmer, J;
Punwani, S;
Ramachandran, N;
Kozerke, S;
(2014)
High-Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) of the human kidneys using a free-breathing multi-slice targeted-FOV approach.
NMR in Biomedicine
, 27
(11)
pp. 1300-1312.
10.1002/nbm.3190.
![[thumbnail of nbm3190-1.pdf]](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) |
PDF
nbm3190-1.pdf Download (7MB) |
Abstract
Fractional anisotropy (FA) obtained by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to image the kidneys without any contrast media. FA of the medulla has been shown to correlate with kidney function. It is expected that higher spatial resolution would improve the depiction of small structures within the kidney. However, the achievement of high spatial resolution in renal DTI remains challenging as a result of respiratory motion and susceptibility to diffusion imaging artefacts. In this study, a targeted field of view (TFOV) method was used to obtain high-resolution FA maps and colour-coded diffusion tensor orientations, together with measures of the medullary and cortical FA, in 12 healthy subjects. Subjects were scanned with two implementations (dual and single kidney) of a TFOV DTI method. DTI scans were performed during free breathing with a navigator-triggered sequence. Results showed high consistency in the greyscale FA, colour-coded FA and diffusion tensors across subjects and between dual- and single-kidney scans, which have in-plane voxel sizes of 2 × 2 mm2 and 1.2 × 1.2 mm2, respectively. The ability to acquire multiple contiguous slices allowed the medulla and cortical FA to be quantified over the entire kidney volume. The mean medulla and cortical FA values were 0.38 ± 0.017 and 0.21 ± 0.019, respectively, for the dual-kidney scan, and 0.35 ± 0.032 and 0.20 ± 0.014, respectively, for the single-kidney scan. The mean FA between the medulla and cortex was significantly different (p < 0.001) for both dual- and single-kidney implementations. High-spatial-resolution DTI shows promise for improving the characterization and non-invasive assessment of kidney function.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | High-Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) of the human kidneys using a free-breathing multi-slice targeted-FOV approach |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/nbm.3190 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nbm.3190 |
| Additional information: | © 2014 The Authors. NMR in Biomedicine published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | human kidney, diffusion tensor imaging, targeted field of view, free breathing, multi-slice imaging |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine > Experimental and Translational Medicine |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1435704 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
