Using Landmark Based Susceptibility Weighted Imaging for Interventional Device Localization in MRI

Abstract

MRI is a widely studied imaging modality due to its superior resolution and soft-tissue contrast. However, the application of MRI is limited in cases when metallic interventional devices are present in the target tissues. High susceptibility of metallic objects often causes artifacts in MR images, making them difficult to localize. SWI is a widely used clinical tool to enhance the image contrast in MR imaging modality. SWI uses phase information of MR images to enhance contrast in tissues with different susceptibilities. In this study, we use a novel SWI-based approach called Metal ARtifact Based Landmark Enhanced SWI (MARBLES) to create a positive contrast image (PCI) for localizing the metallic objects in the MR images. The approach was tested on four different dataset and the results were observed, discussed and compared against that of a Qualitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) based approach.