Grant: Project Grant

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease of the brain and spinal cord that affects over 90,000 Canadians. It can cause problems with vision, balance, movement, and thinking, and costs the healthcare system over $1 billion each year. Doctors use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor MS, looking for changes in the brain that show disease worsening or treatment effects. Most people with MS should have at least one MRI scan per year. However, access to MRI is limited-scanners are expensive, wait times can be long, and some people cannot use regular scanners due to the high magnetic field or claustrophobia. These barriers delay diagnosis and treatment, leading to avoidable disability. A new type of portable MRI, called ultra-low field (ULF) MRI, is much less expensive and uses a magnetic field that is many times weaker than standard hospital scanners. It can be used in community clinics and rural areas, is much quieter, and less claustrophobic thanks to the more open shape of the machine. Our team has shown that ULF MRI can perform many of the same types of brain scans used in MS care, and we have also developed a special type of MRI scan that detects changes in myelin-the protective covering of nerve fibers-which is closely linked to disease progression. We have already demonstrated that this myelin scan can be done on ULF MRI. We will follow 100 people with MS over one year, scanning them every six months on both the standard hospital MRI and ULF MRI. We will compare the images to see how well ULF detects MS changes, measure how consistent the scans are, and find out whether doctors can make clinical decisions based on ULF results. This research will be the first large-scale study to show whether portable ULF MRI can be used for regular MS monitoring. If successful, ULF MRI has the potential to make MRI more accessible, reduce wait times, improve quality of life for people with MS, and save the healthcare system millions of dollars.