Radiological examination of the brain is a critical determinant of stroke care pathways. Accessible neuroimaging is essential to detect the presence of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) operates at high magnetic field strength (1.5–3 T), which requires an access-controlled environment, rendering MRI often inaccessible. We demonstrate the use of a low-field MRI (0.064 T) for ICH evaluation. Patients were imaged using conventional neuroimaging (non-contrast computerized tomography (CT) or 1.5/3 T MRI) and portable MRI (pMRI) at Yale New Haven Hospital from July 2018 to November 2020. Two board-certified neuroradiologists evaluated a total of 144 pMRI examinations (56 ICH, 48 acute ischemic stroke, 40 healthy controls) and one ICH imaging core lab researcher reviewed the cases of disagreement. Raters correctly detected ICH in 45 of 56 cases (80.4% sensitivity, 95%CI: [0.68–0.90]). Blood-negative cases were correctly identified in 85 of 88 cases (96.6% specificity, 95%CI: [0.90–0.99]). Manually segmented hematoma volumes and ABC/2 estimated volumes on pMRI correlate with conventional imaging volumes (ICC = 0.955, p = 1.69e-30 and ICC = 0.875, p = 1.66e-8, respectively). Hematoma volumes measured on pMRI correlate with NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) and clinical outcome (mRS) at discharge for manual and ABC/2 volumes. Low-field pMRI may be useful in bringing advanced MRI technology to resource-limited settings.

ObjectivesTo assess the risk of incident epilepsy among participants with prevalent dementia, and the risk of incident dementia among participants with prevalent epilepsy in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS).MethodsWe analyzed prospectively collected data in the Original and Offspring FHS cohorts. To determine the risk of developing epilepsy among participants with dementia and the risk of developing dementia among participants with epilepsy we used separate, nested, case-control designs and matched each case to 3 age-, sex- and FHS cohort-matched controls. We used Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, adjusting for sex and age. In secondary analysis, we investigated the role of education level and apolipoprotein ε4 allele status in modifying the association between epilepsy and dementia.ResultsA total of 4,906 participants had information on epilepsy and dementia and dementia follow-up after age 65. Among 660 participants with dementia and 1,980 dementia-free controls there were 58 incident epilepsy cases during follow-up. Analysis comparing epilepsy risk among dementia cases vs controls yielded HR = 1.82 [95% CI:1.05–3.16], p = 0.034. Among 43 participants with epilepsy and 129 epilepsy-free controls there were 51 incident dementia cases. Analysis comparing dementia risk among epilepsy cases vs controls yielded HR = 1.99 [1.11–3.57], p = 0.021. In this group, among participants with any post-high school education, prevalent epilepsy was associated with a nearly 5-fold risk for developing dementia (HR = 4.67 [1.82–12.01], p = 0.001) compared to controls of the same educational attainment.ConclusionsThere is a bi-directional association between epilepsy and dementia with either condition carrying a nearly 2-fold risk of developing the other when compared to controls.