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Renal arterial blood flow measurement by breath‐held MRI: Accuracy in phantom scans and reproducibility in healthy subjects
Author(s) -
Dambreville Samuel,
Chapman Arlene B.,
Torres Vicente E.,
King Bernard F.,
Wallin Ashley K.,
Frakes David H.,
Yoganathan Ajit P.,
Wijayawardana Sameera R.,
Easley Kirk,
Bae Kyongtae T.,
Brummer Marijn E.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.22278
Subject(s) - reproducibility , imaging phantom , medicine , nuclear medicine , blood flow , radiology , chemistry , chromatography
This study evaluates reliability of current technology for measurement of renal arterial blood flow by breath‐held velocity‐encoded MRI. Overall accuracy was determined by comparing MRI measurements with known flow in controlled‐flow‐loop phantom studies. Measurements using prospective and retrospective gating methods were compared in phantom studies with pulsatile flow, not revealing significant differences. Phantom study results showed good accuracy, with deviations from true flow consistently below 13% for vessel diameters 3mm and above. Reproducibility in human subjects was evaluated by repeated studies in six healthy control subjects, comparing immediate repetition of the scan, repetition of the scan plane scouting, and week‐to‐week variation in repeated studies. The standard deviation in the 4‐week protocol of repeated in vivo measurements of single‐kidney renal flow in normal subjects was 59.7 mL/min, corresponding with an average coefficient of variation of 10.55%. Comparison of renal arterial blood flow reproducibility with and without gadolinium contrast showed no significant differences in mean or standard deviation. A breakdown among error components showed corresponding marginal standard deviations (coefficients of variation) 23.8 mL/min (4.21%) for immediate repetition of the breath‐held flow scan, 39.13 mL/min (6.90%) for repeated plane scouting, and 40.76 mL/min (7.20%) for weekly fluctuations in renal blood flow. Magn Reson Med 63:940–950, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.