Yang Guo1, Yue Zhang1,2, Grace
Nijm3, Alan Sahakian3, Guang-Yu Yang4, Reed
Omary1,5, Andrew Larson1,5
1Department of Radiology, Northwestern
University, Chicago, IL, United States; 2Department of
Bioengineering , University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United
States; 3Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, United States; 4Department
of Pathology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States; 5Department
of Biomedical Engineering , Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United
States
Electroporation
involves targeted delivery of electrical pulses to permeabilize cell
membranes, either reversible or irreversible. Irreversible electroporation
(IRE), as a new tissue ablation technique, induces tissue necrosis due to
permanent cell membrane defects. Assessment of tissue response to IRE may be
critical. For our study, we demonstrate that inversion recovery prepared
contrast enhancement imaging, with TI adjusted to null the signal intensity
from the reversible zone, can visualize the IRE ablated tissue margin
(differentiating reversible/irreversible zones) to provide an accurate
prediction of ablation. This technique can early detect tissue response to
IRE and might be helpful to guide further treatments.