MRI-guided histotripsy targeting using MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI

Motivation: Transcranial histotripsy requires pre-therapy targeting to ensure treatment at the intended region of interest. MR-ARFI and MR-Thermometry are used for targeting HIFU treatments, but are not tested for targeting of transcranial histotripsy treatments since they use different ultrasound treatment parameters. Goal(s): We evaluate the accuracy of MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI for targeting histotripsy treatments in ex-vivo tissues. Approach: Low intensity MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI were done prior to histotripsy treatment on bovine brain tissues. The lesion location was compared with the peak temperature/displacement to quantify targeting error. Results: Both MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI can perform accurate targeting of histotripsy treatments with mean errors of 2mm. Impact: Transcranial histotripsy is a promising non-invasive treatment method that requires pre-treatment targeting to ensure treatment delivery at the desired location. We showed that both low temperature MR-thermometry and MR-ARFI can be used to accurately estimate histotripsy treatment location.