• Claudia Weidensteiner, Noureddine Kerioui, Bruno Quesson, Baudoin Denis de Senneville, Hervé Trillaud, and Chrit T W Moonen.
• Laboratory for Molecular and Functional Imaging: From Physiology to Therapy, CNRS/Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2004 Apr 1; 19 (4): 438-46.

PurposeTo determine the stability and quality of MR temperature mapping using the proton resonance frequency (PRF) method in the liver of hepatic tumor patients.Materials And MethodsThe standard deviation (SD) of a series of temperature maps was determined in 30 patients (21 patients with cirrhotic livers with carcinoma, and nine patients with noncirrhotic livers with metastasis or angioma) and in five volunteers at normal body temperature under free breathing. A respiratory-gated segmented echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence (three slices in one expiration phase) was performed with sensitivity encoding (SENSE) acceleration on a 1.5 T scanner. Motion-corrupted images were identified by calculation of the cross-correlation coefficient, and discarded.ResultsA T2* range of 10-33 msec was found, with especially low values in advanced cirrhotic livers. The mean temperature SD in patients was 2.3 degrees C (range = 1.5-5.0 degrees C). The stability in healthy livers was slightly better than that in cirrhotic livers, and it was higher in the right liver than in the left liver. The gating failed in 4% of the images when the respiratory cycle was irregular, leading to motion artifacts and errors in the temperature maps.ConclusionThe achieved temperature stability and image quality makes real-time quantitative monitoring of thermal ablation of liver tumors feasible on a clinical scanner.Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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