Thermometry of frozen tissue during cryoablation at 1.5T with a novel 3D spiral staircase UTE sequence (SSCUTE) – A feasibility study

This study assessed the feasibility of thermometry of frozen tissue during MRI-guided cryoablation at 1.5T using a novel 3D spiral staircase UTE sequence (SSCUTE). MRI data using the SSCUTE sequence were continuously acquired along with temperature measurements during several freeze-thaw cycles in ex-vivo porcine specimens. A calibration curve was obtained using temperature measurements and corresponding MRI data. MRI-estimated temperature maps were generated with high accuracy using the calibration curve on a validation dataset. Our work demonstrated the feasibility of thermometry of frozen tissue using SSCUTE sequence at 1.5T, which could be an essential step in clinical adoption of this technique.