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Magnetic Resonance Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging (MR-ARFI) for the monitoring of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) ablation in anisotropic tissue

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Abstract

Objective

We introduce a non-invasive MR-Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging (ARFI)-based elastography method that provides both the local shear modulus and temperature maps for the monitoring of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) therapy.

Materials and methods

To take tissue anisotropy into account, the local shear modulus μ is determined in selected radial directions around the focal spot by fitting the phase profiles to a linear viscoelastic model, including tissue-specific mechanical relaxation time τ. MR-ARFI was evaluated on a calibrated phantom, then applied to the monitoring of HIFU in a gel phantom, ex vivo and in vivo porcine muscle tissue, in parallel with MR-thermometry.

Results

As expected, the shear modulus polar maps reflected the isotropy of phantoms and the anisotropy of muscle. In the HIFU monitoring experiments, both the shear modulus polar map and the thermometry map were updated with every pair of MR-ARFI phase images acquired with opposite MR-ARFI-encoding. The shear modulus was found to decrease (phantom and ex vivo) or increase (in vivo) during heating, before remaining steady during the cooling phase. The mechanical relaxation time, estimated pre- and post-HIFU, was found to vary in muscle tissue.

Discussion

MR-ARFI allowed for monitoring of viscoelasticity changes around the HIFU focal spot even in anisotropic muscle tissue.

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Acknowledgements

This work has benefitted from funding of the FUI (Fonds Unique Interministériel, BPI France) for the UFOGUIDE project, and the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) French national program “Investissements d’Avenir” for the LABEX-CAMI (ANR-11-LABX-0004), the IHU Strasbourg (Institute of Image Guided Surgery, ANR-10-IAHU-0002) and the LabCom TechnoFUS lab (ANR-21-LCV3-0007-01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, ICube, UMR 7357, Strasbourg, France

    Karine Choquet, Jonathan Vappou, Paolo Cabras, Ounay Ishak, Afshin Gangi & Elodie Breton

  2. Image Guided Therapy, Pessac, France

    Paolo Cabras

  3. Department of Interventional Imaging, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France

    Afshin Gangi

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  1. Karine Choquet
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Correspondence to Karine Choquet or Elodie Breton.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

The in vivo experiment was led following the 3R principle for more humane research, and in following local legal ethics regulation (registered project APAFIS #14092-2018031513247711v1). The animal was maintained under gaseous anaesthesia during imaging (1.8% isoflurane), with appropriate pain management (Propofol 1mg/kg) during HIFU. At the end of the experiment, the animal was euthanized through anaesthetics overdose (10 min, 5% isoflurane) coupled to IV injection of saturated KCl solution (0.5 mL/kg).

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Choquet, K., Vappou, J., Cabras, P. et al. Magnetic Resonance Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging (MR-ARFI) for the monitoring of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) ablation in anisotropic tissue. Magn Reson Mater Phy 36, 737–747 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-023-01062-6

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