Mri Thermometry Involving Phase Mapping and Reference Medium Used as Phase Reference

Abstract

The apparatus 1 according to the invention comprises a computing unit 4, which is arranged to access phase images computed from the image data and representative of the target medium and the reference medium and carry out computing steps to yield temperature difference map according to the method of the invention. The operation of the computing means is preferably controlled by the computer program according to the invention, whereby the suitable computing steps are programmed as instructions to a suitable processor. The apparatus 1 further comprises a storage unit 8 arranged to store suitable image data which are accessed by the computer program during the computations. The storage unit 8 preferably stores system parameters of the magnetic resonance apparatus, like the strength of the main field B0, gyromagnetic ratio γ, and suitable parameters of the target medium, like screen constant α in a file 3. The apparatus 1 further comprises a working memory 6, typically based on RAM. The output 9 of the apparatus according to the invention comprises the computed temperature difference map, which can be used to control a suitable medical diagnostic or therapeutic device (not shown), or it may be visualized to a user or be stored for archiving purposes. For feed-back purposes, the apparatus according to the invention comprises a display 7 to visualize the computed temperature difference map. Preferably, the temperature difference map is visualized within a suitable interactive graphic user interface 7a. The invention further relates to a magnetic resonance imaging system, a method and a computer program for computing temperature difference maps.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.