DWI based thermometry: the effects of b-values, resolutions, signal-to-noise ratio, and magnet strength.

Among MR methods, the most clinically applicable temperature measurement method at deep brain might be the diffusion-weighted image (DWI) thermometry. Although only applicable to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), it is thought to be potentially useful in assessing the thermal pathophysiology of the brain in both patients and healthy subjects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of b-value, pixel resolution, magnet strength and signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the DWI-thermometry with healthy volunteer. Formerly, an ADC from b=0 and b=1000 has been thought to be useful for diffusion thermometry, this study revealed b=200 to 800 was more appropriate for DWI thermometry. The SNR was strongly affected the results of DWI thermometry.