In modern oncology, thermal ablations are increasingly used as a regional treatment option to supplement systemic treatment strategies such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The goal of all thermal ablation procedures is to cause cell death of disease tissue while sparing adjacent healthy tissue. Real-time assessment of thermal damage is the key to therapeutic efficiency and safety of such procedures.

Magnetic resonance thermometry is capable of monitoring the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of temperature changes during thermal ablations. Several temperature-dependent MR parameters such as the longitudinal relaxation time T1, the molecular diffusion coefficient D, or the proton resonance frequency (PRF) shift can be exploited for the purpose of temperature mapping.

Regardless of the parameter used, all of these MR thermography methods measure relative and not absolute temperatures. Thus, the quality of the thermal measurements is dependent upon a previously acquired reference scan. Patient motion or local tissue deformation can adversely affect the data accuracy.

Following, we are working on an advanced monitoring system for MR-guided thermal ablations that includes multiplanar visualization, specialized overlay visualization methods, and methods for correcting errors resulting from magnetic field shifts.