Spatio-temporal encoding for needle tracking on an ultra low-field single-sided MRI scanner

Motivation: Needle tracking in MR is essential for guiding prostate biopsies and interventions but the quality and accuracy are limited by SNR and low resolution on a 65mT scanner. Goal(s): To develop a protocol for fast needle localization for a low field, single-sided scanner. Approach: We designed a receive coil mounted on an interventional needle and a fast, radial, cross-term spatiotemporal encoding (xSPEN) scheme for localization. Results: Localization of prostate biopsy needles can be achieved with a sub-2mm average error in less than one minute on an ultra-low field scanner. Impact: The method can be further adapted to guide additional clinical procedures.