Abstract

Purpose:To develop a simple but robust method for the early detection and evaluation of renal functions using dynamic contrast enhanced cone beam CT technique.Methods:Experiments were performed on an integrated imaging and radiation research platform developed by our lab. Animals (n=3) were anesthetized with 20uL Ketamine/Xylazine cocktail, and then received 200uL injection of iodinated contrast agent Iopamidol via tail vein. Cone beam CT was acquired following contrast injection once per minute and up to 25 minutes. The cone beam CT was reconstructed with a dimension of 300×300×800 voxels of 130×130×130um voxel resolution. The middle kidney slices in the transvers and coronal planes were selected for image analysis. A double exponential function was used to fit the contrast enhanced signal intensity versus the time after contrast injection. Both pixel‐based and region of interest (ROI)‐based curve fitting were performed. Four parameters obtained from the curve fitting, namely the amplitude and flow constant for both contrast wash in and wash out phases, were investigated for further analysis.Results:Robust curve fitting was demonstrated for both pixel based (with R2>0.8 for >85% pixels within the kidney contour) and ROI based (R2>0.9 for all regions) analysis. Three different functional regions: renal pelvis, medulla and cortex, were clearly differentiated in the functional parameter map in the pixel based analysis. ROI based analysis showed the half‐life T1/2 for contrast wash in and wash out phases were 0.98±0.15 and 17.04±7.16, 0.63±0.07 and 17.88±4.51, and 1.48±0.40 and 10.79±3.88 minutes for the renal pelvis, medulla and cortex, respectively.Conclusion:A robust method based on dynamic contrast enhanced cone beam CT and double exponential curve fitting has been developed to analyze the renal functions for different functional regions. Future study will be performed to investigate the sensitivity of this technique in the detection of radiation induced kidney dysfunction.

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