Portable MRI Proven to Accurately Track Infant Brain Growth

The bedside Swoop® Portable MRI system can successfully map early brain growth and detect clinical anomalies, delivering vital developmental data without the massive costs and infrastructure required by traditional MRI machines. This makes pediatric neuroimaging accessible and affordable to a wider population of infants worldwide.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lioness Medtech, the nordic distributor of the Hyperfine Swoop® Portable MRI system announced today that the newly published, peer-reviewed research validates the portable MRI scanner as a highly accurate tool for tracking infant brain development. The study, miniMORPH: A Morphometry Pipeline for Low-Field MRI in Infants, published in Human Brain Mapping, proves that the bedside Swoop® system can successfully map early brain growth and detect clinical anomalies, delivering vital developmental data without the massive costs and infrastructure required by traditional MRI machines.

Historically, infant brain development research and early neurological diagnostics have been heavily restricted to high-income regions due to the extreme costs and infrastructural demands of high-field MRI scanners. While the ultra-low-field (0.064T) Hyperfine Swoop® solved the hardware accessibility problem by bringing MRI directly to the patient's bedside, existing neuroimaging software tools struggled to interpret the lower-contrast images of developing infant brains.

The miniMORPH study, led by Chiara Casella and researchers at King's College London, officially bridges that gap. The researchers built and tested an open-source pipeline specifically for 0.064T pediatric scans, successfully proving that portable ultra-low-field MRI can effectively map infant brain growth and detect clinical anomalies. 

"This is a great leap forward for global health equity and pediatric neurology," said Bernt Nordin, Managing Director at Lioness Medtech. "The Hyperfine Swoop® originally broke the physical and financial barriers to brain MR imaging. Now, with the validation of the miniMORPH pipeline, clinicians and researchers anywhere in the world have proof that they can extract highly accurate, clinical-grade developmental data from these portable MR scanners."

Visualizing Early Brain Development at the Bedside: Brain segmentation generated by the open-source miniMORPH pipeline using ultra-low-field (0.064T) T2-weighted images from a portable Hyperfine Swoop® MRI. The software accurately outlines major brain tissues and complex sub-structures across sagittal, coronal, and axial views—proving that clinical-grade developmental data can now be extracted without high-field MRI infrastructure. (Image source: Casella et al., Human Brain Mapping, 2026).

The study analyzed infants aged 2 to 27 months across cohorts in South Africa and Uganda. Key findings demonstrating the efficacy of the Hyperfine Swoop® include:

• Anatomical Precision: The system successfully and reliably mapped major brain regions, capturing accurate volumetric data for gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid.

• Developmental Tracking: Portable MRI scans accurately captured expected age-related brain growth trajectories over the critical first two years of life.

• Clinical Sensitivity: The ultra-low-field scans proved sensitive enough to detect reduced regional brain volumes and altered growth trajectories in infants born with low birth weights.

For healthcare providers, global health initiatives, and regional hospitals, this validation confirms that the Hyperfine Swoop® is not just a tool for fast and accessible neuroimaging, it is a robust instrument for comprehensive neurodevelopmental monitoring. The scanner plugs into a standard electrical outlet, can be wheeled directly to a crib or bedside, and requires a fraction of the investment of conventional MRI systems.

Reference: To read the full peer-reviewed study, miniMORPH: A Morphometry Pipeline for Low-Field MRI in Infants, visit: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.70547

About Lioness Medtech AB

Lioness Medtech AB is a European medical technology integrator and value-added reseller (VAR) for leading innovations in medical imaging and therapy. Lioness represents and services world-leading solutions across medical imaging, radiotherapy, and quality assurance in the Nordics and select European markets. 

Contact

Min Xu 
Lioness Medtech AB (publ) 
Email: info@lionessmedtech.com
Website: www.lionessmedtech.com