A team from the Centre for Kidney Research and Innovation (Prof Taal, Dr Selby) in collaboration with the Sir Peter Mansfield MRI Centre (School of Physics and Astronomy) have been awarded a prestigious MRC Discovery Grant to establish a platform centre for high and ultra-high field 23Na clinical imaging and translate this to clinical studies. 23Na allows direct visualisation of sodium in the human body and has a number of potential clinical uses, from assessing cellular integrity, through evaluation of kidney disease to improving understanding of mechanisms of hypertension. The technique also has specific relevance to understanding sodium and water balance in dialysis patients. After development of the technique, these measures will be applied to study kidney disease as an exemplar clinical application to facilitate development of a wider range of 23Na imaging applications, including brain, lung, gut and the musculoskeletal system.
Find out more about Renal Research at The University of Nottingham School of Medicine.
The University of Nottingham Royal Derby Hospital Uttoxeter Road, Derby, DE22 3DT
telephone: +44 (0)1332 724622 email:gem@nottingham.ac.uk