Patent ID: 8326010

Claim:
A method for processing a temperature map of an object subjected to magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, comprising: generating l series of k MR images (S), said images each with echo times (τ) varied such that fat and water images can be generated, wherein; l is an integer equal to or greater than one; k is an integer equal to or greater than two; and each series of MR images is acquired at a time point (t), and echo time τ o denotes an average or median echo time of images (S) in each series (l); generating a reference phase map image ({circumflex over (ψ)} o ) of said object wherein said phase map is an image representing magnetic field inhomogeneity of said object at a single time point (t a ); applying a reconstruction algorithm to each series (l) of said MR images (S) and to the reference phase map image (ψ o ) to construct a water image (Ŵ) and optionally a fat image ({circumflex over (F)}) of the object, for each series (l); generating the temperature map from the water image (Ŵ) and optionally the fat image ({circumflex over (F)}) of the object, for each series (l) wherein said temperature map depicts temperature change (ΔT) relative to a reference temperature (T ref ) or an absolute temperature (T absolute ) of said object.