New results show special ultrasound scans could predict kidney transplant health

23 June 2025

In a study published in Transplant International, Mr Sam Tingle a surgeon supported by a Clinical Research Training Fellowship funded by the Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK, and his team at Newcastle University looked at using a special type of ultrasound scan to assess the quality of donated kidneys to predict how well they will function.

How are donated kidneys assessed for transplant?

There are over 6,000 people in the UK on the waiting list and six people die every week waiting for a kidney transplant. There is an urgent need to make more kidneys available for transplant. Every year thousands of donated kidneys are discarded if there are doubts about the health of the kidney, however new research suggests it could now be possible to repair kidneys that are not suitable for donation.

Normothermic machine perfusion (NMP), is a technique where the kidney is connected to a machine that provides it with warm, oxygen-rich blood. This helps the kidney stay healthy and recover from cold storage.

Using ultrasound scans to check the health of donated kidneys

Research suggests that when the kidney is injured, blood fails to reach certain parts of the kidney. Sam and the team used specialised ultrasound scans to look at blood flow to specific parts of the kidney whilst the donated kidney is being kept alive outside of the body using machine perfusion.

These scans were done in model kidneys and human kidneys donated for research. In both settings, lack of blood flow in the small blood vessels of the kidney was associated with increased markers of kidney injury.

An image showing five different ultrasound images of the kidney.

Standard ultrasound image (left panel) alongside the special blood flow ultrasound scans (right panels). Regions of interest of the kidney are in white, yellow, green and blue, to which blood flow is measured.    Copyright © 2025 Tingle, Connelly, Glover, Stenberg, McNeill, Kourounis, Gibson, Mahendran, Bates, Cooper, Pook, Lee, Brown, Figueiredo, Marchbank, Ali, Sheerin, Wilson and Thompson.

What could this mean for kidney patients?

Developing an ultrasound scan to assess the viability of donated kidneys could give clinicians a better understanding of donated kidney health.

In the future this could mean more suitable kidneys are transplanted and reduce the number of kidneys that do not get used for transplant, meaning more patients could receive a transplant sooner.

“These quick scans which produce immediate results tell us about damage in the kidney in real time. In the future this could mean we can safely transplant kidneys that may not otherwise be used and shorten the waiting list for patients.” Sam Tingle

Elaine Davies, Director of research operations commented: “We recognise the urgent need to decrease the waiting list so more patients can receive a kidney transplant sooner. These early results suggest ultrasound scans could better assess the health of donated kidneys pre-transplant thereby increasing the number of kidneys available for transplantation. With further research these scans might be used alongside emerging treatments to improve donated kidney health and further increase the number of kidneys transplanted successfully.”