Developing a multichannel temperature probe for interventional MRI.

Abstract

Interventional MRI (I-MRI) guided thermal tissue ablation has been used for a variety of interventional cancer therapies. These would be further facilitated by temperature-sensitive sequences on low magnetic field MR images. However, until these sequences have been reliably implemented at low fields, other methods of temperature measurement are required. This project describes the development of a low cost, reliable, MRI-compatible temperature sensor array useful at a temperature range from 37 degrees C to higher than 90 degrees C. The device uses a three-channel thermocouple sensor array connected to a variety of filtering and signal-conditioning electronics, analog-to-digital (A/D) converters, and personal computers. The sensors induce negligible field distortion. Similarly, no MRI-based measurement artifacts are observed. One-dimensional temperature profiles are generated with thermocouple signal linearization performed by the software.