MRI of kidney size matters.

Abstract

Objective: To highlight progress and opportunities of measuring kidney size with MRI, and to inspire research into resolving the remaining methodological gaps and unanswered questions relating to kidney size assessment.

Materials and methods: This work is not a comprehensive review of the literature but highlights valuable recent developments of MRI of kidney size.

Results: The links between renal (patho)physiology and kidney size are outlined. Common methodological approaches for MRI of kidney size are reviewed. Techniques tailored for renal segmentation and quantification of kidney size are discussed. Frontier applications of kidney size monitoring in preclinical models and human studies are reviewed. Future directions of MRI of kidney size are explored.

Conclusion: MRI of kidney size matters. It will facilitate a growing range of (pre)clinical applications, and provide a springboard for new insights into renal (patho)physiology. As kidney size can be easily obtained from already established renal MRI protocols without the need for additional scans, this measurement should always accompany diagnostic MRI exams. Reconciling global kidney size changes with alterations in the size of specific renal layers is an important topic for further research. Acute kidney size measurements alone cannot distinguish between changes induced by alterations in the blood or the tubular volume fractions-this distinction requires further research into cartography of the renal blood and the tubular volumes.