Hyperpolarized (13)C urea relaxation mechanism reveals renal changes in diabetic nephropathy

PURPOSE: Our aim was to assess a novel (13)C radial fast spin echo golden ratio single shot method for interrogating early renal changes in the diabetic kidney, using hyperpolarized (HP) [(13)C,(15)N(2)]urea as a T(2) relaxation based contrast bio‐probe. METHODS: A novel HP (13)C MR contrast experiment was conducted in a group of streptozotocin type‐1 diabetic rat model and age matched controls. RESULTS: A significantly different relaxation time (P = 0.004) was found in the diabetic kidney (0.49 ± 0.03 s) compared with the controls (0.64 ± 0.02 s) and secondly, a strong correlation between the blood oxygen saturation level and the relaxation times were observed in the healthy controls. CONCLUSION: HP [(13)C,(15)N(2)]urea apparent T(2) mapping may be a useful for interrogating local renal pO(2) status and renal tissue alterations. Magn Reson Med, 2015. © 2015 The Authors. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Magn Reson Med 75:515–518, 2016. © 2015 The Authors. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.