Renal volume assessed by MRI volumetry correlates with renal function in living kidney donors pre - and postdonation.

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.