Yu Liu1, Brett Z. Fite1, Charles
F. Caskey1, Chun-Yen Lai1, Dustin E. Kruse1,
Jai Woong Seo1, Benoit Larrat2, Erik Dumont3,
Katherine W. Ferrara1
1Biomedical Engineering, UC
Davis, Davis, CA, United States; 2Laboratoire Ondes et Acoustique,
ESPCI, Paris, France; 3Image Guided Therapy, Pessac, France
Synopsis: There is intense research in the area of ultrasound-enhanced drug delivery, including enhanced accumulation of particles resulting from tumor insonation with a temperature elevation of ~5C. High field MRI (7T) has advantages in monitoring such treatments in that the region of treatment and temperature can be controlled; since T2* scales with field strength, temperature estimation is efficient and sensitive at high field. We have integrated a real-time high-field MR-guided focused ultrasound system (Image Guided Therapy, France) in studies of mild hyperthermia and apply this technology to improve local drug delivery by coupling PET, MRI and ultrasound (US).