Positioning of temperature measurement points using multiplanar computed tomography

A method is described for the use of computed tomography and multiplanar reconstruction to depict in single images the full course of obliquely running thermometry catheters. In 14 patients given thermoradiotherapy for locally advanced breast carcinoma, reformatted images of the full catheter course were obtained for all 98 catheters so far tested. The main clinical advantage of this time-consuming procedure was the ability to determine the localization within the catheters of individual temperature measurement points of multipoint thermistor probes. It was also possible to study the localization of the measurement points in relation to the tumour margins.