Purpose: The linear change of the water proton resonance frequency shift (PRFS) with temperature is used to monitor temperature change based on the temporal dif-ference of image phase. Here, the effect of motion-induced susceptibility artifacts on the phase difference was studied in the context of mild radio frequency hyperthermia in the pelvis.Methods: First, the respiratory-induced field variations were disentangled from di-gestive gas motionin the pelvis. The projection onto dipole fields (PDF) as well as the Laplacian boundary value (LBV) algorithm were applied on the phase difference data to eliminate motion-induced susceptibility artifacts. Both background field re-moval (BFR) algorithms were studied using simulations of susceptibility artifacts, a phantom heating experiment, and volunteer and patient heating data.Results: Respiratory-induced field variations were negligible in the presence of the filled water bolus. Even though LBV and PDF showed comparable results for most data, LBV seemed more robust in our data sets. Some data sets suggested that PDF tends to overestimate the background field, thus removing phase attributed to tem-perature. The BFR methods even corrected for susceptibility variations induced by a subvoxel displacement of the phantom. The method yielded successful artifact cor-rection in 2 out of 4 patient treatment data sets during the entire treatment duration of mild RF heating of cervical cancer. The heating pattern corresponded well with temperature probe data.Conclusion: The application of background field removal methods in PRFS-based MR thermometry has great potential in various heating applications and body regions to reduce motion-induced susceptibility artifacts that originate outside the region of interest, while conserving temperature-induced PRFS. In addition, BFR automati-cally removes up to a first-order spatial B0 drift.

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doi.org/10.1002/mrm.28302, hdl.handle.net/1765/130945
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Department of Cardiology

Wu, M., Mulder, H.T., Baron, P., Coello, E., Menzel, M.I., van Rhoon, G., & Haase, A. (2020). Correction of motion-induced susceptibility artifacts and B0 drift during proton resonance frequency shift-based MR thermometry in the pelvis with background field removal methods. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 84(5), 2495–2511. doi:10.1002/mrm.28302