Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Ultrasound Fields for Visualization and Measurement of Pressure Amplitudes

In vivo pressure estimations for therapeutic ultrasound has the potential of rendering treatments using non-invasive ultrasound targeting safer and more reliable. By quantifying pressures and their respective spatial locations, better acoustic predictions and models can be made. In this thesis, we aim to measure a pressure field from a piezo-electric transducer through a ballistic gel medium by using an external gradient coil to encode the pressure field in a way that can be read and quantified using an MRI scanner. We describe the methods and the results pertaining to visualizing a pressure field. The setup was able to capture pressure field images and quantify low pressures, as compared to a hydrophone measurement, with maximum peaks of 100 kPa. We found that the confidence interval of the MRI estimated pressure to have a 95% confidence interval of 46 kPa as compared to the hydrophone measurement. We also showed that the MRI measurement setup had an accuracy of 5 kPa within 2 cm from the front of the transducer. The results showed that pressure fields could eventually be reconstructed with precision and accuracies close to that of a hydrophone equivalent acquisition. However, there are still many changes to the methodology that would need to be done.