MR thermometry

Minimally invasive thermal therapy as local treatment of benign and malignant diseases has received increasing interest in recent years. Safety and efficacy of the treatment require accurate temperature measurement throughout the thermal procedure. Noninvasive temperature monitoring is feasible with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging based on temperature-sensitive MR parameters such as the proton resonance frequency (PRF), the diffusion coefficient (D), T1 and T2 relaxation times, magnetization transfer, the proton density, as well as temperature-sensitive contrast agents. In this article the principles of temperature measurements with these methods are reviewed and their usefulness for monitoring in vivo…