Includes Index

Progress in the field of interventional MRI is truly an interdisciplinary endeavor
involving input at all stages of development and from people with different
backgrounds, such as technicians, engineers, computer scientists, physicists,
physicians, managers, or marketing specialists. It takes the invaluable efforts of
all of them to continually define the path that interventional MRI is heading.
From the mid-1990s on, the field has long revolved around subjects like
magnet design, scanner performance, pulse sequences, processing speed, MRcompatible tools, and proper devices for image-guided therapy. While these
issues remain at the heart of technological developments, the last years have put
clinical and user needs back into focus and have also seen an increasing commercial support.
It is our hope that this book will not only provide a comprehensive snapshot
of the field, but will also illustrate that, despite the challenges that still lie ahead,
interventional MRI holds out the prospect of improving patient care in many
different medical areas. As for other innovations, not all ideas, methods, and
developments will ultimately find their way into clinical practice, but without all
these efforts and time, the broad body of equipment, techniques, and applications, that we see and use today, would simply not be available.
This book starts with introductory chapters on interventional MRI systems
and technical considerations like pulse sequences, instruments, guidance, safety,
and anesthesia, while the second part comprises a number of non-thermal
clinical procedures in body regions from head to toe. The third section highlights the ongoing developments in MRI-guided thermal therapies under laser,
radiofrequency, focussed ultrasound, or microwave exposure and is headed by
two overview chapters on thermal ablation techniques and MR thermometry.
The last section presents some new concepts that may take interventional MRI
to yet another level by either looking into information carriers on the molecular
scale or combining the power of MRI with that of clinically established techniques like X-ray, ultrasound, or endoscopy.
We are deeply grateful to our authors, all renowned experts in their research
areas, who have not only devoted themselves to sharing their profound insights
and knowledge, but who have also written outstanding chapters within a relatively short amount of time, ensuring that the topics and information covered
in this book are up to date. We would like to acknowledge the editorial and
production staff at Springer, in particular Daniela Brandt and Corinna Scha¨ fer,
for their extensive support at all times as well as Gregor Tho¨ rmer for his
assistance in finalizing the book. Last but not least, we would also like to acknowledge the interventional
MRI community as a significant force, made up of enthusiasts from around the
globe. They can be found in interventional sessions of larger radiological or
MRI meetings but have also managed to create and maintain a meeting platform of their own. Over nearly two decades, the biennial Interventional MRI
Symposium has been driven by some of the pioneers, in particular by coorganizers Ferenc Jolesz and Jonathan Lewin, and has helped researchers,
clinicians, and industrial partners alike to interact with each other. Without the
ongoing ambitions of the entire community, the field of interventional MRI,
and somehow this book as well, would look a lot different today.