Patent ID: 8311609

Claim:
An apparatus for generating a time dependent phase error corrected temperature difference map comprising: a storage unit configured to store magnetic resonance image data indicative of magnetic resonance signals emitted from an animate object subjected to a magnetic resonance imaging procedure to measure a temporal local temperature variation within the animate object between a first time moment and a second time moment, which magnetic resonance imaging procedure is subject to time dependent phase errors, said animate object comprising a target water-based tissue medium and a reference fat tissue medium; a computing unit configured to: i. access a first phase image generated from the image data and representative of the target water-based tissue medium for the first time moment; ii. access a second phase image generated from the image data and representative of the reference fat tissue medium for the first time moment; iii. access a third phase image generated from the image data and representative of the target water-based tissue medium for the second time moment; iv. access a fourth phase image generated from the image data and representative of the reference fat tissue medium for the second time moment; v. compute a first phase map by subtracting the first phase image from the third phase image for the target water-based tissue medium; vi. compute a second phase map indicative of the time dependent phase error by subtracting the second phase image from the fourth phase image for the reference fat tissue medium; vii. correct the first phase map for the time dependent phase errors by subtracting the second phase map from the first phase map, viii. generate a time dependent phase error corrected temperature difference map based on the corrected first phase map.