Optimized metabolic imaging of rat’s kidney on clinical MRI scanners. Comparison to small-animal high-field imaging

T2*-based blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) MRI has been used to investigate renal metabolism in the rat’s kidney, which is typically conducted on high-field small-animal MRI scanners. However, T2* is very small at high-field strength, e.g., 9.4T, which results in borderline signal-to-noise ratio and questions the measurements accuracy. In this study, we investigated the capability of BOLD imaging of the rat’s kidney on a clinical 3T MRI scanner, where T2* is much higher, and compared the results to those acquired on 9.4T small-animal scanner. The results showed the capability for distinguishing different oxygenation levels in the kidney on clinical 3T scanners.