MRI scans estimated kidney function in healthy adults
About 87%–92% of MRI-based estimates fell within 30% of blood-test-based estimates in statistical testing and prospective validation.
89 participants, cohort study, independent replication
Limit: MRI estimates were validated against an imperfect creatinine-based estimate, not directly measured kidney filtration
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an observational study, healthy adults without known kidney disease underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) without contrast dye. Researchers developed kidney function models in 74 participants and prospectively tested them in 20 others. The development group included 49 women and 25 men, with an average age of 54.3 years.
The models used the thickness of the kidney’s outer layer, blood flow, or both to estimate glomerular filtration rate, a measure of how well kidneys filter blood. Researchers compared these estimates with estimates calculated from a blood test for creatinine. Outer-layer thickness and blood flow were independently associated with the blood-test estimates. In prospective validation, 90% of estimates from each model fell within 30% of the blood-test estimate, but accuracy within 10% was poor. Older age was most strongly linked to lower filtration estimates, blood flow and outer-layer thickness.
Why it matters
The study addresses whether age-related differences in kidney structure and blood flow can inform a blood-test-free assessment of kidney function.
Caveats
The reference was a blood-test estimate, not a direct measurement of filtration, and the study did not test people with known kidney disease. The abstract reports 89 participants but lists development and validation cohorts of 74 and 20.
From the paper
- Participants
A total of 74 subjects scanned between June 2024 and August 2025 were included in the image‐based eGFR developmental cohort.
- Limitation
First, phase contrast RBF measurements were acquired without cardiac gating and at a coarser spatial resolution than is typically recommended.
Quoted word for word from the full text on PubMed Central.
The paper
Kidney Structure and Blood Flow Predict Function and Enable Image-Based eGFR With Non-Contrast MRI
The University of Texas at Austin
NMR in Biomedicine, Sep 11, 2026, Open access
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