Techniques for correcting measurement artifacts in magnetic resonance thermometry

A system for performing proton resonance frequency (PRF) based magnetic resonance (MR) temperature measurement, the system comprising:

• an MRI unit;
• a control module in communication with the MRI unit, and configured to cause the MRI unit to:
• acquire a plurality of PRF reference images of an MR imaging region, each of the reference images corresponding to a PRF phase background resulting from a different arrangement of one or more devices in or near the MR imaging region,
• acquire a first PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the plurality of PRF reference images, and
• acquire a second PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the first PRF image;
• and
• a processor module having access to image data acquired by the MRI unit, and configured to:
• select, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a first PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the first PRF image,
• calculate a first PRF phase shift based at least in part on a difference between the first PRF image and the first PRF reference image,
• select, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a second PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the second PRF image,
• calculate a second PRF phase shift by summing (i) the first PRF phase shift and (ii) an incremental phase shift of a difference between the second PRF image and the first PRF image as compared to a difference between the second PRF reference image and the first PRF reference image, and
• determine at least one temperature change based on at least one of the first PRF phase shift and the second PRF phase shift.

A method of performing proton resonance frequency (PRF) based magnetic resonance (MR) temperature measurement, the method comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a plurality of PRF reference images of an MR imaging region, each of the PRF reference images corresponding to a PRF phase background resulting from one or more predicted anatomical movements of at least a part of a patient's body;
• acquiring a first PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the plurality of PRF reference images;
• selecting, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a first PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the first PRF image;
• calculating a first PRF phase shift based at least in part on a difference between the first PRF image and the first PRF reference image;
• acquiring a second PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the first PRF image;
• selecting, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a second PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the second PRF image;
• calculating a second PRF phase shift by summing (i) the first PRF phase shift and (ii) an incremental phase shift of a difference between the second PRF image and the first PRF image as compared to corresponding pixels of a difference between the first PRF reference image and the second PRF reference image;
• and
• determining at least one temperature change based on at least one of the first PRF phase shift and the second PRF phase shift.

A system for performing proton resonance frequency (PRF) based magnetic resonance (MR) temperature measurement, the system comprising:

• an MRI unit;
• a control module in communication with the MRI unit, and configured to cause the MRI unit to:
• acquire a plurality of PRF reference images of an MR imaging region, each of the reference images corresponding to a PRF phase background resulting from one or more predicted anatomical movements of at least a part of a patient's body,
• acquire a first PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the plurality of PRF reference images, and
• acquire a second PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the first PRF image;
• and
• a processor module having access to image data acquired by the MRI unit, and configured to:
• select, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a first PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the first PRF image,
• calculate a first PRF phase shift based at least in part on a difference between the first PRF image and the first PRF reference image,
• select, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a second PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the second PRF image,
• calculate a second PRF phase shift by summing (i) the first PRF phase shift and (ii) an incremental phase shift of a difference between the second PRF image and the first PRF image as compared to corresponding pixels of a difference between the second PRF reference image and the first PRF reference image, and
• determine at least one temperature change based on at least one of the first PRF phase shift and the second PRF phase shift.