Update on renal blood oxygenation level-dependent MRI to assess intrarenal oxygenation in chronic kidney disease.

Identifying subjects with progressive chronic kidney disease will be important both in clinical practice and in conducting clinical trials. Pruijm et al. (in this issue) demonstrate for the first time that cortical oxygenation as evaluated by blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging can predict future loss of renal function. These observations provide the necessary stimulus to continue the development of renal blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging to further improve the sensitivity and specificity to renal oxygenation and hence the predictive power.