On November 28th, V|LF-Spiro3D hosted the 10th dissemination seminar at BioMaps (UPSaclay) and online, featuring an in-depth presentation by Luc Durrasse on the evolving low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The event shed light on the opportunities and challenges associated with this emerging technology, which has been garnering significant attention in both academic and industrial spheres.
Since the late 2010s, MRI at low magnetic field has experienced a significant regain of interest, primarily driven by technological advances and increasing market demand for improved MRI accessibility. Low-field MRI relies on main magnet strengths well below the 1.5 Tesla and above that are currently available at most hospitals and clinical sites. Various specific clinical applications are currently being explored, leading to multiple industrial initiatives and to a large number of review articles in the scientific literature. Rather than reviewing again the new trends, this brief presentation will consider the challenges of low-field MRI, related to the inherently weak static magnetization and noisy low-frequency detection, physical approaches to achieve convenient spatial resolution, and opportunities mainly related to specific contrast sources.
