Development of novel applications for high-field MRI-guided Therapies

The project aims at bi-lateral transfere of knowledge between the world-lead center for MRI-Guided Therapy at Brigham and Women's hospital (an affilate of Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA) and the unique cross-disciplinary clinical development Ce nter, The Interventional Centre (a department at Rikshospitalet University Hospital) having scandinavias only intra-operative MRI program. The project will strengthen the collaboration between these centers build unique competence for norwegian research. The scientific scope of the project is to develop MRI-guided cardiac intervention and an operating room with 3T MRI, fluoro, CT and PET. The MRI-guided interventional paradigm will be redesigned, and an interactive workstation will be optimized for cathe ter based intervention. Ventricular arrhythmias are a major cause of sudden deaths in Europe and in the US. Catheter ablation with electrophysiology mapping techniques has been shown to eliminate this condition in 2/3 of patients. MRI can visualize the n ormal anatomy, target tissue, the catheter, and the effect of the treatment, with multi-slice, multi-planar capabilities. We propose to develop a hardware/software platform for the MRI scanner that will track an MRI loop coil on a catheter tip, conspicuou sly display the shaft of the catheter, provide real-time imaging in the context of 3D anatomy, and enable some control over the acquisition by the clinician in a 3T MRI scanner. Interstitial laser therapy (ILT) is a minimally invasive technique for local tumor ablation. Light energy is delivered directly to tissue through a optical fiber that creates a zone of thermal ablation. ILT has been safely applied in the brain in a limited number of patients for the treatment of tumors but adequate control of the spatial extent of the ablation for maximal therapeutic effect is lacking. We will optimize ILT by creating a 3D computer-based surgical guidance system.