Renal volume assessed by magnetic resonance imaging volumetry correlates with renal function in living kidney donors pre- and postdonation: a retrospective cohort study

Renal function of potential living kidney donors is routinely assessed with scintigraphy. Kidney anatomy is evaluated by imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We evaluated if a MRI-based renal volumetry is a good predictor of kidney function pre- and postdonation. We retrospectively analyzed the renal volume (RV) in a MRI of 100 living kidney donors. RV was correlated with the tubular excretion rate (TER) of MAG3-scintigraphy, a measured creatinine clearance (CrCl), and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) by Cockcroft-Gault (CG), CKD-EPI, and modification of diet in renal disease (MDRD) formula pre- and postdonation during a follow-up of 3years. RV correlated significantly with the TER (total: r=0.6735, P<0.0001). Correlation between RV and renal function was the highest for eGFR by CG (r=0.5595, P<0.0001), in comparison with CrCl, MDRD-GFR, and CKD-EPI-GFR predonation. RV significantly correlated with CG-GFR postdonation and predicted CG-GFR until 3years after donation. MRI renal volumetry might be an alternative technique for the evaluation of split renal function and prediction of renal function postdonation in living kidney donors.