Patent ID: 8368401

Claim:
A method of performing proton resonance frequency (PRF) based magnetic resonance (MR) temperature measurement, the method comprising the steps of: acquiring a plurality of PRF reference images of an MR imaging region, each of the reference images corresponding to a PRF phase background resulting from a different arrangement of one or more devices in or near the MR imaging region; acquiring a first PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the plurality of PRF reference images; selecting, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a first PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the first PRF image; calculating a first PRF phase shift based at least in part on a difference between the first PRF image and the first PRF reference image; acquiring a second PRF image of the MR imaging region subsequent to the acquisition of the first PRF image; selecting, from the plurality of PRF reference images, a second PRF reference image most closely corresponding to the second PRF image; calculating a second PRF phase shift by summing (i) the first PRF phase shift and (ii) an incremental phase shift of a difference between the second PRF image and the second PRF reference image as compared to a difference between the first PRF image and the first PRF reference image; and determining at least one temperature change based on at least one of the first PRF phase shift and the second PRF phase shift.