Clinical application of digitally-reconstructed radiographs generated from magnetic resonance imaging for intracranial lesions.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the clinical utility of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-based digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) for the setup and verification of patients with intracranial lesions.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: MR images of 16 patients with various intracranial lesions were obtained for treatment planning and virtual simulation. Five-millimeter-thick contiguous T1-weighted postcontrast transverse slices were obtained using a standard head coil in a General Electric Signa 1.5T MR scanner. MR-DRRs were generated using the "pseudo density" technique on an existing treatment planning computer without any special modifications. Anterior and lateral verification films were taken for each patient for visual comparison with MR-based DRRs.

RESULTS

Visual alignment with bony landmarks, including the orbits, frontal sinus, sphenoid sinus, auditory meatus, nasal bone, vomer bone, mastoid process, and the cranium were used by physicians, physicists, and therapists to verify patient positioning. Misalignments from 3 to 10 mm were visually identified and corrected using this technique.

CONCLUSION

A method for visually utilizing MR-based DRRs during simulation has been developed and clinically implemented. The quality of MR-DRRs generated using this technique is such that physicians, physicists, and therapists can easily and routinely compare MR-DRRs side-by-side with simulation films.