Treatment analysis environment for review of MRgHIFU treatments: a multi-parametric analysis tool

Background/introduction Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a wide spectrum of imaging contrasts, which have utility for preparation and evaluation of HIFU treatments, as well as for guiding HIFU energy delivery (MRgHIFU). Currently, research into the prospective value of these imaging markers and their ability to predict and probe treatment success is challenged by the lack of an analysis environment that is able to process the spectrum of imaging and treatment data as a whole, and allows assessing correlation between data sets. As an example, we may want to relate the placement and temperature evolution of sonication cells with the resulting non-perfused volume, assessed by MRI perfusion imaging.[1] An important factor in this issue is that treatment data is poorly accessible to researchers. E.g. for the Philips Sonalleve platform, treatment data is almost exclusively available in log files and thermometry images are exported in a proprietary format (Par/Rec). We propose an analysis environment for clinical and basic imaging research in the context of MRgHIFU treatments. It will be made available to the research community to i) accelerate developments in the field, ii) enable effective use of advanced imaging in MRgHIFU research and iii) stimulate collaboration between centers.