Original Research Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Renal

End stage renal disease is common and can result from a variety of diseases. The expense and morbidity of dialysis has made renal transplantation the preferred treatment when it is available. In the United States, 11,000 renal transplants are performed annually. Because of the limited supply of donor organs, every effort is made to salvage the transplanted kidney that has began to fail. Imaging mo-dalities that are currently used to evaluate transplanted kidneys are ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), scintigraphy, intravenous urography (IVU), contrast angiog-raphy, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI offers multiple advantages. MRI provides cross sectional and vascular information without the risks of ionizing radia-tion, iodinated contrast, or arterial catheterization. This article describes the role of MR imaging in renal transplanta-tion, technical aspects of image acquisition, and MR findings ofpost-transplantationcomplications. J.Magn.Reson. Imag