William T Clarke1, Tiffany Bell2,3,4, Uzay Emir5,6, Mark Mikkelsen7,8, Georg Oeltzschner7,8, Benjamin C Rowland9, Amirmohammad Shamaei10,11, Brian J Soher12, Sofie Tapper7,8, and Martin Wilson13
1Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, NDCN, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2Department of radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 3Hotchkiss brain institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 4Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 5School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 6Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 7Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, 8F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, 9Division of Cancer Science, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 10Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS, Brno, Czech Republic, 11Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic, 12Center for Advanced MR Development, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States, 13Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
1Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, NDCN, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, 2Department of radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 3Hotchkiss brain institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 4Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, 5School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 6Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 7Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, 8F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, 9Division of Cancer Science, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, 10Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS, Brno, Czech Republic, 11Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic, 12Center for Advanced MR Development, Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States, 13Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
An MRS data format standard is proposed to solve the issue of diverse data formats in MRS research. A standard based on an extended NIfTI format will simplify use, analysis of, and dissemination of MRS data.
Figure 5. NIfTI MRS will be supported from the start by eight MRS analysis packages, covering five major programming languages. Several packages (FSL, SUSPECT and spant shown here) already can load NIfTI format data.
Figure 1. Schematic of the NIfTI MRS format. The NIfTI header is retained and used for its original purpose. Additional MRS specific meta-data is stored in a JSON formatted NIfTI header extension. Complex time-domain data is stored in the fourth dimension, after three spatial dimensions, and before three optional flexible-use dimensions.
