A hybrid approach to full-scale reconstruction of renal arterial network

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 7569 - 15
• Main Authors: Xu, Peidi, Holstein-Rathlou, Niels-Henrik, Søgaard, Stinne Byrholdt, Gundlach, Carsten, Sørensen, Charlotte Mehlin, Erleben, Kenny, Sosnovtseva, Olga, Darkner, Sune
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.05.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/114/1314; 631/114/1564; 631/114/2397; 631/443/272; 631/553/117; 631/553/2695; 692/4022/272; 692/698/272; Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Algorithms; Animals; Arteries; Artificial Intelligence; Blood vessels; Computed tomography; Hemodynamics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Kidney - diagnostic imaging; Kidney - physiology; Kidneys; Mathematical models; Medical imaging; multidisciplinary; Neuroimaging; Optimization; Pathophysiology; Physiology; Rats; Renal function; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Structure-function relationships; Temporal lobe; Veins & arteries; X-Ray Microtomography
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34739-y

The renal vasculature, acting as a resource distribution network, plays an important role in both the physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney. However, no imaging techniques allow an assessment of the structure and function of the renal vasculature due to limited spatial and temporal resolution. To develop realistic computer simulations of renal function, and to develop new image-based diagnostic methods based on artificial intelligence, it is necessary to have a realistic full-scale model of the renal vasculature. We propose a hybrid framework to build subject-specific models of the renal vascular network by using semi-automated segmentation of large arteries and estimation of cortex area from a micro-CT scan as a starting point, and by adopting the Global Constructive Optimization algorithm for generating smaller vessels. Our results show a close agreement between the reconstructed vasculature and existing anatomical data obtained from a rat kidney with respect to morphometric and hemodynamic parameters.