Feasibility of Nipah virus-induced lesion detection using 0.05T MRI

Motivation: Portable, low-field MRI systems may represent the only viable strategy to monitor neurological manifestations of infectious diseases, such as Nipah virus (NiV), in vivo, and in low-resource settings. Goal(s): To determine the optimal resolution for lesion detection at 0.05T and compare texture and area markers between 3T and 0.05TApproach: We acquired 3T MR images of three NiV-exposed NHPs, simulated corresponding low-field images for lesion segmentation. Results: We determined a minimum resolution requirement of 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 mm3 at 0.05T to manually segment NiV-induced brain lesions on T2w images and that 0.05T texture matches better with 3T data than lesion area. Impact: The study determined the optimal resolution and textural feature required to monitor NiV-affected patients through prospective imaging at 0.05T to track lesions caused by NiV. It showed that textural was more consistent between the two field strengths than lesion area.