Evaluation of radiofrequency ablation using magnetic resonance elastography

Abstract

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an important modality in tumor treatment. One of the challenging issues is how to control and evaluate RFA treatment. This study is one of the first systems to examine magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for RFA evaluation. The ex vivo experiments were designed and performed on bovine and porcine liver tissues respectively. It is found that the contrast ratios of the common imaging protocols were 1:1.09 (2.44:2.65) only for bovine tissues and 1:1.12 (2.19:2.45) for porcine tissues, but they were enhanced to 1:3.03 (25.74:78.04) and 1:3.66 (9.16:33.55) respectively on MRE. In conclusion, MRE is a good solution for RFA evaluation. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.