Liver ablation using a high intensity focused ultrasound system and MRI guidance

The effectiveness of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor thermal lesions created by High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) in rabbit liver in vivo is investigated. The MRI sequences of T1-weighted, and T2-weighted fast spin echo (FSE) were evaluated. The main goal in this paper was to find the range of repetition time (TR) and range of echo time (TE) which maximizes the contrast to noise ratio (CNR). An ultrasonic transducer operating at 2 MHz was used, which is navigated using a positioning device. With T1W FSE the range of TR under which CNR is maximized ranges from 400 to 900 ms. The maximum contrast measured is approximately 25. With T2W FSE the range of TE that establishes maximum contrast is between 40 ms and 80 ms, with CNR of approximately 14. T1W FSE is much better than T2W FSE in detecting thermal lesions in liver. Both T1W and T2 W FSE were proven successful to image thermal lesions created by HIFU in rabbit liver in vivo.