Seed Localization in MRI-Guided Prostate Brachytherapy Using Inversion-Recovery with ON-Resonant Water Suppression (IRON)

Nathanael Kuo¹, Junghoon Lee¹, Clare Tempany², Matthias Stuber¹, Jerry Prince¹

An MRI pulse sequence and a corresponding image processing algorithm to localize prostate brachytherapy seeds during or after therapy are presented. Inversion-Recovery with ON-resonant water suppression (IRON) is an MRI methodology that generates positive contrast in regions of magnetic field susceptibility, as created by brachytherapy seeds. Phantoms comprising of several materials found in seeds were created to assess the usability of IRON for imaging seeds. Resulting images show that seed materials are clearly visible with high contrast using IRON. A seed localization algorithm to process IRON images demonstrates the potential of this imaging technique for seed localization and dosimetry.