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MR‐guided interstitial cryotherapy of the liver with a novel, nitrogen‐cooled cryoprobe
Author(s) -
Tacke Josef,
Adam Gerhard,
Speetzen Ralf,
Brucksch Kerstin,
Sticker Arno,
Heschel Ingo,
Prescher Andreas,
van Vaals Joop J.,
Hunter David W.,
Rau Günter,
Günther Rolf W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.1910390304
Subject(s) - cryotherapy , nitrogen , medicine , nuclear medicine , chemistry , biomedical engineering , radiology , organic chemistry
The purpose of the study was to test a newly developed, MR‐compatible, liquid nitrogen‐cooled cryoprobe. The probe has an outer diameter of 3.5 mm and was specifically developed for percutaneous, MR‐guided, interstitial cryotherapy. The probe was inserted percutaneously into the livers of 10 rabbits. The cryotherapy procedure was monitored with a surface coil in a 1.5 Tesla magnet using a gradient echo sequence. Follow‐up examinations were performed 3 and 7 days after the freezing procedure using T 1 ‐ and T 2 ‐weighted spin echo sequences. At 7 days the animals were sacrificed and the cryolesions were examined histologically. The cryoprobe enabled artifact‐free MR imaging of the “ice‐ball” formation during freezing of the rabbit liver. After 1 min of freezing, the iceball at the tip of the probe showed an average maximum diameter of 10.8 mm. No bleeding complications were observed during or after the freezing procedure. Histologic examination 7 days after cryotherapy confirmed that the liver lesions were the same size as had been predicted by the images of the acute iceball. This new, percutaneously inserted, MR‐compatible, liquid‐nitrogen cooled cryoprobe allows accurate, artifact‐free MR imaging of interstitial cryotherapy.