Diffusion tensor MRI and spherical‐deconvolution‐based tractography on an ultra‐low field portable MRI system

Gholam, James, Schmid, Phil, Ametepe, Joshua, Plumley, Alix, Beltrachini, Leandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4602-1416, Padormo, Francesco, Teixeira, Rui, O'Halloran, Rafael, Petkov, Kaloian, Engel, Klaus, Williams, Steven C. R., Deoni, Sean, Cercignani, Mara and Jones, Derek K. 2026. Diffusion tensor MRI and spherical‐deconvolution‐based tractography on an ultra‐low field portable MRI system. Human Brain Mapping 47 (2) , e70454. 10.1002/hbm.70454

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Abstract

Ultra‐low‐field (ULF) MRI is emerging as an alternative modality to high field (HF) MRI due to its lower cost, minimal siting requirements, portability and enhanced accessibility—factors that enable large‐scale deployment. Although ULF‐MRI exhibits a lower signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), advanced imaging and data‐driven denoising methods enabled by high‐performance computing have made contrasts like diffusion‐weighted imaging (DWI) feasible at ULF. This study investigates the potential and limitations of ULF tractography, using data acquired on a 0.064 T commercially available mobile point‐of‐care MRI scanner. The results demonstrate that most major white matter bundles can be successfully retrieved in healthy adult brains within clinically tolerable scan times. This study also examines the recovery of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)‐derived scalar maps, including fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. Strong correspondence is observed between scalar maps obtained with ULF‐MRI and those acquired at high field strengths. Furthermore, fibre orientation distribution functions reconstructed from ULF data show good agreement with high‐field references, supporting the feasibility of using ULF‐MRI for reliable tractography. These findings open new opportunities to use ULF‐MRI in studies of brain health, development and disease progression—particularly in populations traditionally underserved due to geographic or economic constraints. The results show that robust assessments of white matter microstructure can be achieved with ULF‐MRI, effectively democratising microstructural MRI and extending advanced imaging capabilities to a broader range of research and clinical settings where resources are typically limited.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy Schools > Psychology Research Institutes & Centres > Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1065-9471
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	11 February 2026
Date of Acceptance:	11 January 2026
Last Modified:	11 Feb 2026 11:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184698

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