# Noninvasive Measurement of Voxelwise Renal Oxygenation Using Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

> **NIH NIH R21** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2024 · $220,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract (Description)
Motivation: There is growing evidence that impaired renal oxygenation (an increased ratio of oxygen
consumption to oxygen delivery) is a common characteristic of deteriorated kidney function. This includes
conditions such as acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD), the transition from AKI to CKD, and
further progression to end-stage renal disease. Approximately half of all patients undergoing chemotherapeutic
treatment benefit from platinum-based antineoplastic drugs. However, these drugs are nephrotoxic, which limits
both the dosage that can be safely administered and the population that can receive it. Noninvasive monitoring
and repeatable measurement of intrarenal tissue oxygenation, an area that continues to present an unmet clinical
need, will enhance the clinical management of AKI, CKD, and the determination of dosage and selection of
chemotherapeutic regimens in cancer patients.
The renal oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), expressed as the ratio of the difference between arterial and venous
oxygen saturation to arterial oxygen saturation, can serve as a quantitative biomarker of renal tissue oxygen
tension. An increased OEF suggests impaired tissue oxygenation, implying a decrease in renal oxygen tension,
assuming that blood oxygen tension is in balance with the surrounding tissue. MRI has the potential to offer 3D
volumetric, voxel-by-voxel noninvasive quantification of deoxyhemoglobin concentration and OEF through
advanced signal modeling. However, there are major challenges to overcome: 1) respiratory and/or bulk motion
in the abdomen, 2) flow-induced errors, 3) the presence of large susceptibility and fat, and 4) the lack of advanced
algorithms that effectively calculate OEF. This project aims to address these major challenges.
Approach: This project is highly focused on the technological development of MRI. Aim 1 intends to enable a
fully flow-compensated multi-echo 3D non-Cartesian MRI method that is robust to respiratory motion. This MRI
technique will continuously acquire a navigation signal from which respiratory and/or bulk motion can be
extracted, thereby enabling robust retrospective motion-resolved kidney image reconstruction. Aim 2 will focus
on the development of: 1) joint multi-echo and respiratory motion-resolved image reconstruction, 2) total field
inversion for renal quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), and 3) OEF mapping from a signal model that
combines the magnitude-based quantitative blood oxygen level dependent (qBOLD) and the phase-based QSM.
Aim 3 will evaluate the sensitivity of the developed renal OEF mapping method on healthy subjects before and
after an induced alteration in renal oxygenation.
Significance: This work will lead to free-breathing renal functional MRI that enables noninvasive voxel-by-voxel
quantification of renal OEF. This technique will facilitate its widespread use as a quantitative imaging biomarker
of renal tissue oxygen tension in ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10888031
- **Project number:** 1R21DK137146-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** Youngwook Kee
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $220,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-04-24 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10888031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10888031, Noninvasive Measurement of Voxelwise Renal Oxygenation Using Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (1R21DK137146-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10888031. Licensed CC0.

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