IJBI International Journal of Biomedical Imaging 1687-4196 1687-4188 Hindawi Publishing Corporation 464235 10.1155/2009/464235 464235 Research Article Temperature-Change-Based Thermal Tomography Xu Yong yong@vt.edu 1 Wei Xiangyu weixy@vt.edu 1 Wang Ge wangg@vt.edu 2 Zhao Jun 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA vt.edu 2 School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA vt.edu 2009 22 07 2009 2009 07 03 2009 01 06 2009 2009 Copyright © 2009 Yong Xu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Thermal properties of biological tissues play a critical role in the study of tumor angiogenesis and the design and monitoring of thermal therapies. To map thermal parameters noninvasively, we propose temperature-change-based thermal tomography (TTT) that relies on relative temperature mapping using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our approach is unique in two aspects: (1) the steady-state body temperature in thermal equilibrium is not restricted to be spatially invariant, and (2) absolute temperature mapping is not required. These two features are physiologically realistic and technically convenient. Our numerical simulation indicates that a ( 9   mm ) 3 tumor inside a breast phantom can be reliably depicted, assuming moderate temperature mapping accuracy of 0.5 ∘ C .

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