Figure 5.
MRT Based on the Temperature Dependence of T2: In Vivo Thermometry in Human Fat
(A) and (B) Temperature maps of a patient before HIFU treatment; (C) and (D) temperature maps of the same patient after a series of 13 HIFU sonications. (A) and (C) Coronal images near the interface between subcutaneous fat and the HIFU table; (B) and (D) sagittal images with view through the HIFU-treated uterine fibroid. The red areas in (C), center, and in (D), next to the HIFU transducer on the left, demonstrate a temperature increase up to about 40°C in the fat region close to the treated fibroid, whereas the fat regions not in the path of the HIFU beam appear blue due to a temperature decrease down to about 25°C caused by the HIFU table actively cooled to 20°C. The temperature of the posterior subcutaneous fat, distant from HIFU table and beam path, remained largely constant, as evidenced by the color coding within the areas outlined by black lines in (B) and (D). The HIFU-targeted fibroid tissue appears largely as a black void in (B) and (D). In this application, fat thermometry serves the purpose of monitoring hyperthermia side effects on non-targeted tissue in real time.
Reproduced from Parmala et al. (2016) with permission obtained through the Copyright Clearance Center.