Optimization of EPI based PRF thermometry at 0.5 T

Echo planar imaging (EPI) is well-suited for temperature mapping in the mid-field (0.5T) thanks to longer T2* values that can be leveraged without prohibitively slow update rates. In this work, we optimize EPI based PRF thermometry acquisitions for mid-field MRI. Digital simulations and in-vivo temperature stabilities were computed over echo times ranging from 50ms – 100ms. The optimal mean temperature uncertainty over the entire acquisition volume was measured to be approximately 1⁰C demonstrating that EPI based thermometry provides clinically viable sensitivity at 0.5T with sufficient image resolution and extremely fast update rates (1.3-2 s).