Measurement of Murine Single-Kidney Glomerular Filtration Rate Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI

Purpose: To develop and validate a method for measuring murine single-kidney glomerular filtration rate (GFR) using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). Methods: This prospective study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. A fast longitudinal relaxation time (T₁) measurement method was implemented to capture gadolinium dynamics (1 s/scan), and a modified two-compartment model was developed to quantify GFR as well as renal perfusion using 16.4T MRI in mice 2 weeks after unilateral renal artery stenosis (RAS, n = 6) or sham (n = 8) surgeries. This approach was validated by comparing model-derived GFR and perfusion to those obtained by fluorescein isothiocyanante (FITC)-inulin clearance and arterial spin labeling (ASL), respectively, using the Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlations and Bland-Altman analysis. Results: The compartmental model provided a good fitting to measured gadolinium dynamics in both normal and RAS kidneys. The proposed DCE-MRI method offered assessment of single-kidney GFR and perfusion, comparable to the FITC-inulin clearance (Pearson's correlation coefficient r = 0.95 and Spearman's correlation coefficient ρ = 0.94, P < 0.0001, and mean difference −7.0 ± 11.0 μL/min) and ASL (r = 0.92 and ρ = 0.84, P < 0.0001, and mean difference 4.4 ± 66.1 mL/100 g/min) methods. Conclusion: The proposed DCE-MRI method may be useful for reliable noninvasive measurements of single-kidney GFR and perfusion in mice. Magn Reson Med 79:2935–2943, 2018.