Assessment of thermal sensitivity of CT during heating of liver: an ex vivo study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the thermal sensitivity of CT during heating of ex-vivo animal liver. METHODS: Pig liver was indirectly heated from 20 to 90 °C by passage of hot air through a plastic tube. The temperature in the heated liver was measured using calibrated thermocouples. In addition, image acquisition was performed with a multislice CT scanner before and during heating of the liver sample. The reconstructed CT images were then analysed to assess the change of CT number as a function of temperature. RESULTS: During heating, a decrease in CT numbers was observed as a hypodense area on the CT images. In addition, the hypodense area extended outward from the heat source during heating. The analysis showed a linear decrease of CT number as a function of temperature. From this relationship, we derived a thermal sensitivity of CT for pig liver tissue of -0.54±0.03 HU °C(-1) with an r(2) value of 0.91. CONCLUSIONS: The assessment of the thermal sensitivity of CT in ex-vivo pig liver tissue showed a linear dependency on temperature ≤90 °C. This result may be beneficial for the application of isotherms or thermal maps in CT images of liver tissue.