TY  - JOUR
AU  - von Danwitz, Niklas M
AU  - Lehnen, Nils C
AU  - Meißner, Julius N
AU  - Samani, Omid Shirvani
AU  - Asperger, Hannah
AU  - Thielscher, Christian
AU  - Ebrahimi, Taraneh
AU  - Layer, Julia
AU  - Nitsch, Louisa
AU  - Dorn, Franziska
AU  - Radbruch, Alexander
AU  - Bode, Felix J
AU  - Weller, Johannes M
AU  - Groteklaes, Anne
AU  - Petzold, Gabor C
AU  - Sabir, Hemmen
AU  - Stösser, Sebastian
TI  - Portable ultra-low-field MRI in acute stroke care: A pilot study.
JO  - European stroke journal
VL  - 10
IS  - 4
SN  - 2396-9873
CY  - London
PB  - Sage Publishing
M1  - DZNE-2025-01347
SP  - 1430 - 1437
PY  - 2025
AB  - Neuroimaging is a prerequisite for treatment of stroke patients, but it is not available all over the globe. Portable ultra-low field (pULF) MRI has the potential to improve access to neuroimaging and thus stroke care worldwide. In a pilot study, we were the first to utilise pULF-MRI in a European tertiary stroke centre and to evaluate its diagnostic value compared to high-field (HF) MRI.Consecutive patients admitted for suspected ischaemic stroke underwent pULF-MRI using the 0.064 Tesla Swoop® portable MR imaging system in addition to standard imaging. HF-MRI and pULF-MRI scans were blindly assessed to compare the diagnostic accuracy and imaging-based therapeutic decisions based on pULF-MRI to HF-MRI.Seventeen patients underwent pULF-MRI, 12 of whom had ischaemic lesions on HF-MRI. Ischaemic lesions were detected on pULF-MRI in 8/12 cases. The four infarcts not identified on pULF-MRI were all smaller than 6 mm in diameter. In all cases, a virtual treatment decision based on pULF-MRI by a blinded team matched the actual clinical decisions.This single-centre study demonstrates that pULF-MRI is a promising tool in acute stroke care, providing reliable imaging for treatment decision and follow-up monitoring. pULF-MRI may support acute stroke care if HF-MRI is unavailable and may be particularly helpful in resource-limited settings. Limitations of pULF-MRI include long acquisition times and the lack of vessel imaging and haemorrhage-sensitive sequences.
KW  - Humans
KW  - Pilot Projects
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Aged
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging: methods
KW  - Magnetic Resonance Imaging: instrumentation
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Stroke: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Ischemic Stroke: diagnostic imaging
KW  - Neuroimaging: methods
KW  - Neuroimaging: instrumentation
KW  - Stroke (Other)
KW  - acute care (Other)
KW  - emergency department (Other)
KW  - health equality (Other)
KW  - point of care imaging (Other)
KW  - portable ultra-low-field MRI (Other)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40515383
C2  - pmc:PMC12170540
DO  - DOI:10.1177/23969873251344761
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/282587
ER  -