Feasibility of computed tomography based thermometry during interstitial laser heating in bovine liver

OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of computed tomography (CT) based thermometry during interstitial laser heating in the bovine liver. METHODS: Four freshly exercised cylindrical blocks of bovine tissue were heated using a continuous laser of Nd:YAG (wavelength: 1064 nm, active length: 30 mm, power: 10–30 W). All tissues were imaged at least once before and 7 times during laser heating using CT and temperatures were simultaneously measured with 5 calibrated thermal sensors. The dependency of the average CT numbers as a function of temperature was analysed with regression analysis and a CT thermal sensitivity was derived. RESULTS: During laser heating, the growing hypodense area was observed around the laser source and that area showed an increase as a function of time. The formation of hypodense area was caused by declining in CT numbers at increasing temperatures. The regression analysis showed an inverse linear dependency between temperature and average CT number with −0.65 ± 0.048 HU/°C (R(2) = 0.75) for the range of 18–85°C in bovine liver. CONCLUSIONS: The non-invasive CT based thermometry during interstitial laser heating is feasible in the bovine liver. CT based thermometry could be further developed and may be of potential use during clinical LITT of the liver.