Monitoring and noise masking of thermal therapy
First Claim
1. A method for thermal monitoring of tissue during thermal therapy, comprising:
- prior to initiation of thermal therapy,obtaining, by processing circuitry, a plurality of magnetic resonance (MR) images of a patient, whereinthe plurality of MR images correspond to a same imaging slice captured over a time period, andeach MR image of the plurality of MR images includes respective phase data,identifying, by the processing circuitry, a volume in the patient corresponding to a) a region of interest at which to apply thermal therapy and b) surrounding tissue,analyzing, by the processing circuitry, pixel locations of the phase data of the plurality of MR images corresponding to the volume to identify one or more pixel locations demonstrating excessive phase noise,determining, by the processing circuitry, a noise mask for the region of interest, wherein the noise mask excludes the one or more pixel locations demonstrating excessive phase noise, andselecting, from the pixels included in the noise mask, a plurality of reference points, whereinthe plurality of reference points identify locations within the surrounding tissue, andeach reference point of the plurality of reference points corresponds to a particular pixel location of the phase data having a particular phase value; and
initiating monitoring of the thermal therapy, wherein monitoring comprisesreceiving a current MR image of the patient,adjusting, by the processing circuitry, the phase data of the current MR image according to the plurality of reference points, wherein adjusting the phase data of the current MR image comprisesdetermining, based upon at least a subset of the plurality of reference points without considering phase data corresponding to pixel locations within the region of interest, a plurality of phase drift values to correct for phase drift, andextrapolating the phase drift values into a phase map, wherein at least a portion of the phase map corresponds to the pixel locations within the region of interest,applying, by the processing circuitry, the phase map to the current phase data to obtain drift-adjusted phase data, andcalculating, by the processing circuitry, a temperature map using the drift-adjusted phase data, wherein the temperature map corresponds to at least the region of interest.
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Abstract
Image-guided therapy of a tissue can utilize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or another medical imaging device to guide an instrument within the tissue. A workstation can actuate movement of the instrument, and can actuate energy emission and/or cooling of the instrument to effect treatment to the tissue. The instrument can be an MRI compatible laser probe that provides thermal therapy to, e.g., a tissue in a brain of a patient. By tracking a probe position within tissue through feedback, multiple data slices provided around the probe position can be processed to monitor treatment and view thermal data. The operator selects treatment area reference points with the assistance of noise masking.
616 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for thermal monitoring of tissue during thermal therapy, comprising:
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prior to initiation of thermal therapy, obtaining, by processing circuitry, a plurality of magnetic resonance (MR) images of a patient, wherein the plurality of MR images correspond to a same imaging slice captured over a time period, and each MR image of the plurality of MR images includes respective phase data, identifying, by the processing circuitry, a volume in the patient corresponding to a) a region of interest at which to apply thermal therapy and b) surrounding tissue, analyzing, by the processing circuitry, pixel locations of the phase data of the plurality of MR images corresponding to the volume to identify one or more pixel locations demonstrating excessive phase noise, determining, by the processing circuitry, a noise mask for the region of interest, wherein the noise mask excludes the one or more pixel locations demonstrating excessive phase noise, and selecting, from the pixels included in the noise mask, a plurality of reference points, wherein the plurality of reference points identify locations within the surrounding tissue, and each reference point of the plurality of reference points corresponds to a particular pixel location of the phase data having a particular phase value; and initiating monitoring of the thermal therapy, wherein monitoring comprises receiving a current MR image of the patient, adjusting, by the processing circuitry, the phase data of the current MR image according to the plurality of reference points, wherein adjusting the phase data of the current MR image comprises determining, based upon at least a subset of the plurality of reference points without considering phase data corresponding to pixel locations within the region of interest, a plurality of phase drift values to correct for phase drift, and extrapolating the phase drift values into a phase map, wherein at least a portion of the phase map corresponds to the pixel locations within the region of interest, applying, by the processing circuitry, the phase map to the current phase data to obtain drift-adjusted phase data, and calculating, by the processing circuitry, a temperature map using the drift-adjusted phase data, wherein the temperature map corresponds to at least the region of interest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 20)
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10. A system for thermal monitoring of tissue during thermal therapy, comprising:
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a processor in communication with a display and a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging device; and a memory having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to; prior to initiation of thermal therapy, obtain, from the MR imaging device, a plurality of magnetic resonance (MR) images of a patient, wherein the plurality of MR images correspond to a same imaging slice over a time period, and each MR image of the plurality of MR images includes respective magnetic resonance (MR) phase data, identify a volume in the patient corresponding to a) a region of interest at which to apply thermal therapy and b) surrounding tissue, wherein the plurality of MR images comprises respective magnetic resonance (MR) image data representing a portion of the volume including a portion of the region of interest, and determine a plurality of reference points, wherein the plurality of reference points identify locations within the surrounding tissue, and each reference point of the plurality of reference points corresponds to a particular pixel location of the phase data having a particular phase value; and initiate monitoring of thermal therapy, wherein monitoring comprises receiving, from the MR imaging device, a current MR image of the patient, calculating a plurality of phase drift values associated with the plurality of reference points, wherein the phase drift values are based upon phase values of each respective reference point of the plurality of reference points over successive magnetic resonance (MR) phase data of the current MR image and a former MR image without considering phase data corresponding to pixel locations within the region of interest, extrapolating the phase drift values of the plurality of reference points into a phase map, wherein at least a portion of the phase map corresponds to the pixel locations within the region of interest, applying the phase map to the MR phase data of the current MR image to obtain drift-compensated phase data, calculating a temperature map based upon the drift-compensated phase data, wherein the temperature map corresponds to at least the region of interest, and presenting, on the display, a rendering of the MR image including a graphical representation of temperatures in the region of interest according to the temperature map. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19)
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Specification