Three-dimensional morphometric analysis of the renal vasculature

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Renal Physiology
• Medical Imaging Analysis

Background:

• Vascular topology and morphology critically regulate blood flow and solute transport (e.g., oxygen, CO2).
• Renal vascular morphology presents challenges due to artery-vein wall proximity, hindering precise 3D computational modeling.
• Manual characterization of renal vascular geometry is labor-intensive and species-specific.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated method for 3D morphometric analysis of renal vasculature.
• To enable precise characterization of renal vascular geometry for improved computational modeling.
• To quantify vascular attributes relevant to intrarenal mass transport.

Main Methods:

• A semisupervised method for 3D morphometric analysis of computed tomography-generated renal vasculature images.
• Derivation and computation of quantitative vascular attributes for mass transport analysis.
• Validation by comparing automated measurements with manual measurements in rabbit kidneys.

Main Results:

• The automated method accurately quantifies morphological characteristics of artery-vein pairs, comparable to manual measurements.
• Rabbit artery-vein pairs show decreasing intimacy along the renal vasculature.
• The total wrapped mass transfer coefficient in rabbit kidneys increases and then decreases.

Conclusions:

• The developed semisupervised method offers an efficient and accurate approach for analyzing renal vascular geometry.
• This tool facilitates the creation of new quantitative physiological models for small molecule transport in the kidney.
• The findings contribute to a better understanding of renal hemodynamics and solute exchange.