Kourosh Kalayeh
University of Michigan, MI·Biomedical Engineering
When urine cannot drain properly from a kidney, pressure builds up and can slowly destroy kidney tissue. This condition, upper urinary tract obstruction (UUTO), affects people of all ages.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
upper urinary tract obstruction
urinary obstruction
hydronephrosis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2031
What they work on
- Establish normal dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (DCEUS) kidney blood-flow values in healthy volunteers, accounting for biological sex and left versus right kidney.
- Evaluate whether DCEUS measurements of cortical blood flow can distinguish dilated kidneys with upper urinary tract obstruction from dilated kidneys without obstruction.
- Assess whether DCEUS can track changes in kidney blood flow before and after surgical correction of urinary obstruction, testing whether flow recovers.
More about the research
It can cause painful kidney colic, raise infection risk and, without treatment, lead to loss of the kidney. Doctors need to tell which swollen kidneys are truly blocked, ideally before lasting damage. The current standard test is nuclear medicine diuretic renography (NMDR). It uses ionizing radiation, is costly and hard to access, and often gives unclear or wrong answers. It also cannot see changes in blood flow that come before the kidney loses function.
Why it matters
Patients of all ages with suspected kidney blockage, including underserved patients with limited access to nuclear medicine, could benefit if contrast ultrasound proves a reliable test. It may catch kidney injury earlier than current scans, without radiation and at lower cost. It could serve either as a stand-alone test or alongside diuretic renography to guide surgery and follow-up.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Flemming Forsberg
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biomedical Engineering
Implement multiparametric ultrasound, combining contrast-enhanced, subharmonic, dispersion and viscoelastography imaging, on a commercial 3D transrectal probe, and adapt an MRI-based fusion and registration system for it.
Marie Muller
North Carolina State University, NC·Biomedical Engineering
Develop methods to reduce chest-wall effects and optimize data acquisition for lung quantitative ultrasound (LQUS) in human subjects.
Romulo Hurtado
Weill Medical College of Cornell University, NY·Physiology
Define the transcriptional signaling mechanisms required for formation of HCN channel-expressing pacemaker cells and for functional peristalsis in the upper urinary tract, using a mutant mouse that lacks these pacemakers but has normal smooth muscle.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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