Christiaan G. Overduin1, Jurgen J. Fütterer1,2, and Tom W.J. Scheenen1
1Radiology, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 2MIRA Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands
Our study
assessed the feasibility and accuracy of 3D ultrashort TE (UTE) MR thermometry to
dynamically track temperatures across frozen tissue during cryoablation on a
clinical MR system at 3T. We demonstrated 3D UTE imaging to achieve measurable
MR signal from frozen tissue down to temperatures as low as -40°C within a
clinically realistic time-frame (~1min) and with sufficient spatial resolution
(1.63mm isotropic). Using a calibration curve, we could derive 3D MR-estimated
temperature maps of the frozen tissue, which showed good agreement with matched temperature sensor
readings on statistical analysis.
