Raman Saggu1, Dorothee Faille2,
Georges Grau2, Patrick Cozzone1, Angele Viola1
1Universit de la
Mditerrane-Facult de Mdecine, CRMBM UMR CNRS 6612, Marseille, France; 2Department
of Pathology, Sydney Medical School,
The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia
Cerebral malaria (CM) is the most lethal complication of Plasmodium infection. We have previously characterized murine CM at its ultimate stage using in vivo MRI and MRS at 4.7 T, and proved the fatal role of ischemic edema. Here, our purpose was to detect clinically-relevant markers of early CM using T1- and T2-weighted MRI at higher field (11.75 T). We have identified early features of experimental CM such as damage to the internal capsule, and the optic and trigeminal nerves at high field. These findings may help understand the contribution of cerebral lesions to overt clinical signs during early CM.