On the reproducibility of the average gray-level for noninvasive temperature estimation in the hyperthermia range

Authors

Abstract

The thermal treatment of deep sited tissues requires temperature feedback by minimally invasive or even by completely noninvasive methods. Ultrasound has been pointed as a viable technology for noninvasive temperature assessment. More precisely, parameters from B-Mode images were pointed to vary monotonically with temperature and able to estimate temperature with appropriate resolution. In this paper, a bovine muscle sample is subjected to several heating and cooling periods in order to analyze how the average gray-level from B-Mode images is reproducible with temperature. This is an important aspect concerning the real-time application on a clinical setting. Results point that for formaldehyde fixed tissue the average gray-level was reproducible with temperature. In non-fixed (unstable) media reproducibility was achieved by considering relative (temperature and average gray-level) changes to the starting of a particular heating/cooling phase.

Keywords

Noninvasive temperature estimation, Ultrasound, Average Gray-Level, Reproducibility, B-Mode images

Subject

Non-Invasive Temperature Estimation

Conference

Panamerican Health Care Exanges, March 2011