Fig. 5: Simultaneous in vivo imaging of renal perfusion, filtration, and acid-base balance.
a Scheme for simultaneous combined imaging of renal kidney perfusion and filtration in 3D and renal pH in 2D within one minute where functional information is selectively obtained from one of the 13C labels of Z-OMPD. b Image time series of co-injected hyperpolarized [13C]urea for a comparison with a standard hyperpolarized perfusion marker covering both healthy rat kidneys. The white square indicates the native voxel size. Scale bar, 10 mm. c The following CSI acquisition allows reconstruction of low-noise pH maps where the acidic renal pelvis generates good pH contrast compared to the surrounding renal cortex. Native voxel sizes for both acquisitions are indicated by white squares. d Image time series of the C1-magnetization of hyperpolarized Z-OMPD. The higher SNR compared to [13C]urea together with the high spatial resolution allows better assessment of first-pass perfusion and renal filtration from the cortex (renal periphery) to the pelvis (renal center) when injected at identical concentrations. Image acquisition for both compounds started with start of injection and acquisition of time frames alternated between [13C]urea and Z-OMPD. Hyperpolarized acquisitions are overlaid with an anatomical T2-weighted image. The schematic kidney in a was created with BioRender.com.
