Correction of proton resonance frequency shift temperature maps for magnetic field disturbances caused by breathing

Respiratory induced resonance offset (RIRO) is a periodic disturbance of a magnetic field due to breathing. Such disturbance handicaps the accuracy of the proton resonance frequency shift (PRFS) method of MRI temperature mapping in anatomies situated nearby the lungs and chest wall. In this work, we propose a method capable of minimizing errors caused by RIRO in PRFS temperature maps. In this method, a set of baseline images characterizing RIRO at a variety of respiratory cycle instants is acquired before the thermal treatment starts. During the treatment, the temperature evolution is found from two successive images. Then, the calculated temperature changes are corrected for the additional contribution caused by RIRO using the pre-treatment baseline images acquired at the identical instances of the respiratory cycle. Our method is shown to improve the accuracy and stability of PRFS temperature maps in the presence of RIRO and inter-scan motion in phantom and volunteers' breathing experiments. Our method is also shown to be applicable to anatomies moving during breathing if a proper registration procedure is applied.