Quantification of bilateral kidney oxygen consumption with MOTIVE-bSSFP

Kidney oxygen consumption rate increases during the early stages of diabetes, ultimately leading to hypoxia of renal tissue. Thus, a reliable non-invasive approach to quantify kidney metabolism has significant clinical potential. Here, an approach to quantify the kidney oxygen utilization of both kidneys is reported. The method relies on the MOTIVE-bSSFP pulse sequence to measure SvO2 and blood flow rate in the inferior vena cava, above and below the branching of the renal vessels. Conservation of mass yields an expression to compute bilateral renal metabolic rate of oxygen.