A dual-plane co-RASOR technique for accurate and rapid tracking and position verification of an Ir-192 source for single fraction HDR brachytherapy

Effective high-dose-rate (HDR) treatment requires accurate and independent treatment verification to ensure that the treatment proceeds as prescribed, in particular if a high dose is given, as in single fraction therapy. Contrary to CT imaging and fluoroscopy, MR imaging provides high soft tissue contrast. Conventional MR techniques, however, do not offer the temporal resolution in combination with the 3D spatial resolution required for accurate brachytherapy source localization. We have developed an MR imaging method (center-out RAdial Sampling with Off-Resonance (co-RASOR)) that generates high positive contrast in the geometrical center of field perturbing objects, such as HDR brachytherapy sources. co-RASOR generates high positive contrast in the geometric center of an Ir-192 source by applying a frequency offset to center-out encoded data. To obtain high spatial accuracy in 3D with adequate temporal resolution, two orthogonal center-out encoded 2D images are applied instead of a full 3D acquisition. Its accuracy in 3D is demonstrated by 3D MRI and CT. The 2D images show high positive contrast in the geometric center of non-radioactive Ir-192 sources, with signal intensities up to 160% of the average signal intensity in the surrounding medium. The accuracy with which the center of the Ir-192 source is located by the dual-plane MRI acquisition corresponds closely to the accuracy obtained by 3D MRI and CT imaging. The positive contrast is shown to be obtained in homogeneous and in heterogeneous tissue. The dual-plane MRI technique allows the brachytherapy source to be tracked in 3D with millimeter accuracy with a temporal resolution of approximately 4 s.

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