Abstract #1426
Magnetization Transfer for Early Assessment of Hepatic Tumors Treated with Thermal Ablation
Kotys M, Gharib A, Thomasson D, Locklin J, Wood B
National Institutes of Health
Validated imaging techniques for thermal ablation of hepatic tumors may serve as early detection of untreated tumor, potentially impacting survival in specific clinical scenarios. Magnetization transfer (MT) liver imaging was performed in two patients three days before and one day after radiofrequency ablation of liver neoplasms. MT ratio maps showed that burned normal liver tended to have lower values than normal liver. Pre- and post-treatment ratios of the lesion were considerably different, and post-treatment values tended to normalize to values of normal remote liver. Analysis suggests that MT could provide useful information about the relationship of tumor to treatment zone.