Departments of Electrical Engineering, Convergence IT Engineering, Medical Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Medical Device Innovation Center, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Cheongam-ro 77, Nam-gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk, 37673, Republic of Korea.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Dec;10(36):e2303966. doi: 10.1002/advs.202303966. Epub 2023 Oct 17.
To combat the irreversible decline in renal function associated with kidney disease, it is essential to establish non-invasive biomarkers for assessing renal microcirculation. However, the limited resolution and/or vascular sensitivity of existing diagnostic imaging techniques hinders the visualization of complex cortical vessels. Here, a 3D renal ultrafast Doppler (UFD) imaging system that uses a high ultrasound frequency (18 MHz) and ultrahigh frame rate (1 KHz per slice) to scan the entire volume of a rat's kidney in vivo is demonstrated. The system, which can visualize the full 3D renal vascular branching pyramid at a resolution of 167 µm without any contrast agent, is used to chronically and noninvasively monitor kidneys with acute kidney injury (AKI, 3 days) and diabetic kidney disease (DKD, 8 weeks). Multiparametric UFD analyses (e.g., vessel volume occupancy (VVO), fractional moving blood volume (FMBV), vessel number density (VND), and vessel tortuosity (VT)) describe rapid vascular rarefaction from AKI and long-term vascular degeneration from DKD, while the renal pathogeneses are validated by in vitro blood serum testing and stained histopathology. This work demonstrates the potential of 3D renal UFD to offer valuable insights into assessing kidney perfusion levels for future research in diabetes and kidney transplantation.
为了对抗与肾脏疾病相关的肾功能不可逆下降，建立用于评估肾脏微循环的非侵入性生物标志物至关重要。然而，现有诊断成像技术的分辨率有限和/或血管灵敏度有限，阻碍了对复杂皮质血管的可视化。本文展示了一种使用高超声频率（18MHz）和超高帧率（每片 1KHz）的 3D 肾脏超快速多普勒（UFD）成像系统，该系统可在没有任何造影剂的情况下以 167µm 的分辨率可视化整个大鼠肾脏的完整 3D 血管分支金字塔。该系统可用于慢性和非侵入性监测急性肾损伤（AKI，3 天）和糖尿病肾病（DKD，8 周）的肾脏。多维 UFD 分析（例如，血管容积占有率（VVO）、分数运动血容量（FMBV）、血管数密度（VND）和血管迂曲度（VT））描述了 AKI 导致的快速血管稀疏和 DKD 导致的长期血管退化，而体外血清检测和染色组织病理学验证了肾脏发病机制。这项工作展示了 3D 肾脏 UFD 评估肾脏灌注水平的潜力，为糖尿病和肾脏移植的未来研究提供了有价值的见解。
