Program Information
Using UTE and T1 Weighted Spin Echo Pulse Sequences for MR-Only Treatment Planning; Phantom Study
H Yu1*, A Fatemi2 , A Sahgal3 , (1) Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, (2) Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, (3) University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Presentations
SU-E-J-224 (Sunday, July 12, 2015) 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM Room: Exhibit Hall
Purpose:Investigating a new approach in MRI based treatment planning using the combination of (Ultrashort Echo Time) UTE and T1 weighted spin echo pulse sequences to delineate air, bone and water (soft tissues) in generating pseudo CT images comparable with CT.
Methods:A gel phantom containing chicken bones, ping pang balls filled with distilled water and air bubbles, was made. It scanned with MRI using UTE and 2D T1W SE pulse sequences with (in plane resolution= 0.53mm, slice thickness= 2 mm) and CT with (in plane resolution= 0.5 mm and slice thickness= 0.75mm) as a ground truth for geometrical accuracy. The UTE and T1W SE images were registered with CT using mutual information registration algorithm provided by Philips Pinnacle treatment planning system. The phantom boundaries were detected using Canny edge detection algorithm for CT, and MR images. The bone, air bubbles and water in ping pong balls were segmented from CT images using threshold 300HU, -950HU and 0HU, respectively. These tissue inserts were automatically segmented from combined UTE and T1W SE images using edge detection and relative intensity histograms of the phantom. The obtained segmentations of air, bone and water inserts were evaluated with those obtained from CT.
Results:Bone and air can be clearly differentiated in UTE images comparable to CT. Combining UTE and T1W SE images successfully segmented the air, bone and water. The maximum segmentation differences from combine MRI images (UTE and T1W SE) and CT are within 1.3 mm, 1.1mm for bone, air, respectively. The geometric distortion of UTE sequence is small less than 1 pixel (0.53 mm) of MR image resolution.
Conclusion:Our approach indicates that MRI can be used solely for treatment planning and its quality is comparable with CT.
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