MR‐Guided percutaneous ethanol ablation of liver tissue in a .2‐T open MR system: Preliminary study in porcine model

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of MR-guided percutaneous ethanol ablation of liver tissue on a .2-T open MR scanner. Needles were placed by MR guidance first into an ex vivo sheep liver and then into livers of three anesthetized pigs, and injection of 10 ml of 96% alcohol was performed. T1 fast low-angle shot (FLASH), T2 turbo spin echo (TSE), and T1 spin echo (SE) images were obtained after incremental volumes of injection. In one pig, simultaneous injection of saline into normal liver was also performed with subsequent pathological correlation. Ethanol-infiltrated liver was hypointense to liver on all sequences, whereas saline caused no tissue signal changes on T1 SE and either isointense or hyperintense changes on T2 TSE images. Pathological examination confirmed ethanol-induced acute liver changes as compared with the control. MR guidance of needle placement and monitoring of ethanol effects on liver tissue is feasible. This may have implications for potential MR-guided hepatic tumor ablation.

MRI-guided radiofrequency thermal ablation of implanted VX2 liver tumors in a rabbit model: Demonstration of feasibility at 0.2 T

“…Usually, percutaneous ultrasound, computed tomography (CT) or MRI is used to guide this step of the interventional procedure (6)(7)(8). Then, a cross-sectional imaging modality is immediately utilized to monitor the thermally induced tissue changes in order to predict the amount of coagulation necrosis and to guide the treatment process.…”

Thermal lesion conspicuity following interstitial radiofrequency thermal tumor ablation in humans: A comparison of STIR, turbo spin-echo T2-weighted, and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MR images at 0.2 T

“…Guidance of an electrode or laser fiber into the targeted portion of a tumor can be achieved by using US, computed tomography (CT), or MRI (13)(14)(15). Previous reports have shown that MRI is capable of providing both guidance and monitoring for thermal ablations (5,16,17).…”

Real‐time organ motion tracking and fast image registration system for MRI‐guided surgery

“…Reports of clinical applications, such as biopsy [1], cryotherapy [2,3], and local drug administration [4], have been presented. There are reports on the use of temperature maps derived from MR signals, such as laser hyperthermia [5,6], coagulation by radio frequency (RF) waves [7] and microwaves [8], and ablation by focused ultrasound [9,10].…”