Simulated field maps: Toward improved susceptibility artefact correction in interventional MRI

Abstract

Intraoperative MRI is a powerful modality for acquiring structural and functional images of the brain to enable precise image-guided neurosurgery. In this paper, we propose a novel method for simulating main magnetic field inhomogeneity maps during intraoperative MRI-guided neurosurgery. Our method relies on an air-tissue segmentation of intraoperative patient specific data, which is used as an input to a subsequent field simulation step. The generated simulation can then be used to enhance the precision of image-guidance. We report results of our method on 12 patient datasets acquired during image-guided neurosurgery for anterior lobe resection for surgical management of focal temporal lobe epilepsy. We find a close agreement between the field inhomogeneity maps acquired as part of the imaging protocol and the simulated field inhomogeneity maps generated by the proposed method. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.