Interventional MR-imaging for thermal ablation therapy

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has several unique advantages for guiding thermal ablation therapies. It not only provides excellent soft-tissue contrast and multiplanar capabilities, but also is sensitive to thermal effects. To make full use of these advantages for thermal ablation procedures, we present an integrated solution for a thermal therapy workflow that combines dedicated MRI pulse sequences and visualization/analysis tools for trajectory planning, automatic slice positioning for image-guided needle placement, and advanced MR thermal mapping. The paper highlights a novel approach to detect the needle in real-time MR images and to automatically realign the scan planes. In addition, a global approach to correct for B0 field shift during online MR thermometry is introduced. The application has been implemented using the open-source eXtensible Imaging Platform (XIP).

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: ISBI
• Authors: Eva Rothgang, Wesley D. Gilson, Wilhelm Strehl, Li Pan, Jorg Roland, Christine H. Lorenz, Joachim Hornegger
• Keywords: ISBI 2011, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Mri, Medical Imaging, Soft Tissue Contrast