Ultrasonic Approach to Nonivasive Temperature Monitoring During Microwave Thermotherapy

Abstract

Microwave thermotherapy (MT) is an oncological treatment. At presentthe invasive thermometer probes are clinically used for temperaturemeasuring during an MT. Any invasive handling of tumors is ofhigh-risk. A new possible method of noninvasive monitoring oftemperature distribution in tissue has been developed. An MT treatmentof the experimentally induced pedicle-tumors of the rat was prepared.For 100 rat samples a strong correlation between the mean gray level inthe ROIs in the ultrasound pictures and the invasively measuredtemperature in the range 37-44 °C was found. The correlationcoefficient of the mean gray level and the invasively measuredtemperature is 0.96a0.05. A system for representation of changes ofspatial temperature distribution of the whole tumor during MT ispresented.