Anatomical Phase Extraction (APE) Method: A Novel Method to Correct Detrimental Effects of Tissue-Inhomogeneity in Referenceless MR Thermometry—Preliminary Ex Vivo Investigation

Figure 1

(a) Schematics and (b) photograph of experimental setup. Spherical HIFU-transducer was mounted on an arc structure attached to the MRI patient table. A water bag filled the space between the HIFU transducer and the object to be ablated. (c) Ex vivo experiments with pork tenderloin: ultrasound transducer performed ablation in nine different positions. Upper row: the time series of HIFU ablation. Lower row: the representative temperature maps of the nine ablation positions with the corresponding time. Note that HIFU ablation power transmitted in nine different positions was varying and increasing (detailed in Table 1), and thus, the temperature of successive points becomes hotter and hotter.

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