Patent ID: 8024025

Claim:
A method of correcting magnetic resonance temperature measurements, comprising the steps of: determining a proton resonance frequency (PRF) reference phase map of a therapeutic region of interest and at least one PRF monitoring region of interest; determining a spin-lattice relaxation time T 1 reference map of at least one T 1 monitoring region of interest; repeatedly acquiring a phase map of the therapeutic region of interest and the at least one PRF monitoring region of interest; determining an apparent change of temperature of the therapeutic region of interest and the at least one PRF monitoring region of interest based on the proton resonance frequency (PRF) reference phase map; intermittently acquiring an updated T 1 reference map of the at least one T 1 monitoring region of interest; determining an apparent change of temperature of the at least one T 1 monitoring region of interest based on the updated T 1 reference map; computing a phase correction map from the apparent change of temperature of the at least one T 1 monitoring region of interest based on the updated T 1 reference map; updating the PRF reference phase map by incorporating the computed phase correction map; and applying the updated PRF reference phase map to correct the magnetic resonance temperature measurement of the apparent change in temperature of the therapeutic region of interest.