Improved MR thermometry for laser-induced thermal therapy – tradeoffs between imaging approaches

MR thermometry is often used to monitor thermal therapies such as focused ultrasound and laser induced thermal therapies (LITT). As in MRI in general, there is an inherent tradeoff between measurement accuracy, precision, and spatial and temporal resolution in MR thermometry. In this work we present improved acquisition protocols for 2D and 3D MR thermometry for LITT applications. We investigate and compare image quality and temperature precision for 8 different 2D and 3D GRE, and 3D segmented EPI protocols. Experiments are performed in a healthy volunteer (non-heating) and tissue-mimicking gel (with heating).