To assess the applicability of phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) in the analysis of renal transplant viability and preservation techniques with respect to pre-transplant ischemia, we studied two rat groups. Twenty-five rat kidneys were subjected to various time increments of warm ischemia (Group A), and 31P-MRS was performed on each kidney at time intervals of up to 72 hours during simple hypothermic storage. We correlated findings of 31P-MRS with simultaneous findings of electron microscopic (EM) ultrastructural viability parameters (in Group A) and subsequent survival and renal function in 30 rats (Group B) subjected to similar amounts of variable ischemia. Intracellular phosphorus metabolite levels were nondestructively monitored by 31P-MRS via spectral peaks of NAD, sugar monophosphates (SP), and inorganic phosphate (Pi). We concluded: SP/Pi and NAD/Pi ratios decay in a time-dependent manner for both warm and cold ischemia, although this process is much slower during cold storage; EM viability parameters correlate with the development of acute tubular necrosis (irreversible damage) versus nonviability (gross cell death) on a qualitative basis only; and 31P-MRS enables a quantitative assessment of renal viability and ischemic renal damage and can predict the degree of acute tubular necrosis and post-ischemic renal function. 31P-MRS is potentially a noninvasive, nondestructive method of assessing viability during simple hypothermic storage of the rat kidney. Preliminary evidence shows that this MRS method can be applied to human kidney viability studies for clinical renal transplantation and urologic research concerning renal preservation.