DTI Task Card

(Obsolete version. Visit new version here.)

This document describes how to use the task card for Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI Task Card) on a SIEMENS NUMARIS 4 satellite console. This task card allows visualization of diffusion tensor imaging data. A general knowledge of MRease usage is assumed.

Load Image Data

Open the Patient Browser. Select the series of the original diffusion data to be used for diffusion tensor map calculation and visualization. Then click on the DTI icon in the upper left corner of the Patient Browser to load the data into the DTI Task Card.
After data is loaded and calculated, the diffusion tensors can now be visualized in different patterns.

User Interface Description

Tool Buttons

View

	1:1. Set the current viewpage the same size of the view port.
	4:1. Split view port to allow 4 viewpages shown together.
	9:1. Similar to above.
	16:1. Similar to above.
	Zoom In. Zoom in the current selected image by a factor of 2.
	Zoom Out. Zoom out the current selected image by a factor of 2.
	Zoom ... Zoom the current selected image by an arbitrary factor chosen by user.
	Restore. Restore the current image's size and position.
	Restore All. Restore all the images' size and position.

Image

	Tensor Map. Set current visualization to 3D rendering of diffusion tensors.
	Plain Image. Set current visualization to generic color-coded or grayscale bitmap.
	HSL Color Space. Toggle between HSL (Hue-Saturation-Luminence) or RGB (Red-Green-Blue) color space for color value windowing. Default status is on (recommended).
	Lines, Boxoids or Ellipsoids. Set the representing object to Line, Boxoid or Ellipsoid for the visualization of diffusion tensor. The small dark arrow on the right bottom of the button indicates that a drop-down menu will be shown if clicked, allowing to select the object. This button is only shown when Tensor Map mode is chosen.
	Color or Grayscale. Set the generic map to color or grayscale. This button is only shown when Plain Image mode is chosen.
	Color Sphere. Show the color sphere indicating the direction-color coding for visualization.
	Noise Threshold. Manually set the noise threshold for rendering (valid from 0 to 100). Noise threshold is used to determine background in Low b image.
	Autoset Noise Threshold. Automatically set the noise threshold as the mean value plus 6 times standard deviation of low b background.

Map

	FA. Set Fractional Anisotropy as the weighting factor for current visualization/maps.
	E1-E3. Set E1 minus E3 as the weighting factor for current visualization/maps. E1, E2 and E3 represents the three eigen-values of the diffusion tensor at each voxel.
	E1. Set E1 as the weighting factor for current maps. Only generic grayscale map is valid at this mode.
	E2. Set E2 as the weighting factor for current maps. Only generic grayscale map is valid at this mode.
	E3. Set E3 as the weighting factor for current maps. Only generic grayscale map is valid at this mode.

Patient

	Load Pixel Data From File. Load pixel data from an existing .bshort file.
	Close Patient. Close the current patient.
	Write New Series. Write new series into database. There will be a pop-up dialog allowing to selection what maps (FA, E1-E3, etc.) to write. The new images can be loaded into the Viewing Task Card. This button is only valid when data is loaded from database (not .bshort file).
	Save As Bitmap. Save the current viewpage image to a Windows bitmap file.

Note:

All of the above commands except the ones in "Patient" category can be found in the main menu on top of the task card.
Move the mouse cursor over each button to show its tooltip. Tooltip can only be shown when the button is not grayed.
Loading a new series (new patient data) will close the current loaded patient and clear all the previously rendered images.

Scrollbar

	Home. Move to the first page of images. (hotkey: Home)
	Previous Row. Move to the previous row of images.
	Next Row. Move to the next row of images.
	End. Move to the last page of images. (hotkey: End)

	Previous Page. Move to the previous page of images. (hotkey: Page Up)
	Next Page. Move to the next page of images. (hotkey: Page Down)

Mouse

	At this cursor, hold left button and drag to move the current selected image.
	At this cursor, hold left button and drag to zoom the current selected image.

	Hold middle button and drag to do windowing of the current selected image. (Note: Color and grayscale windowing are independent).
	Hold Ctrl Key and left-click to multi-select images. Or right-click to select the whole series.

Installation

Before installation please make sure the MRease and Syngo versions of the PC to install on matches the following version:

N4_VA15A_LATEST_20011123
syngo VA47V
syngo VA49A

To find out the version select Help -> About MRease and the General tab. The DTI Task Card will not run on any version different from the one stated above.

Also, please be aware of the following issues before installing the DTI Task Card software:

Do not install this software on a scanner console.
Do not install this software on a satellite console without approval by SIEMENS.
Installation of this software may void any warranty.
There is no SIEMENS support or warranty or liability for this software.
There is no other support or warranty or liability for this software.

For installation of the DTI Task Card follow these steps:

Open the Component Viewer: Start -> Syngo -> Tool Box -> Component Viewer and make sure CM is selected.
Open a Command Prompt window.
Type stopcm.
Wait until all processes are stopped as displayed in the Component Viewer.
Extract the self-extracting archive into C:\TEMP.
Run the install script: C:\TEMP\DTI\install.bat.
Type startcm.
Type rti startpmgt appl.
Wait until the screensaver disappears.
The additional DTI Task Card should now show up.
If the DTI Task Card does not show up try rebooting the system. If it still does not show up check the existence of the following files:
C:\MedCom\bin\TensorDatabaseBackend.dll
C:\MedCom\bin\TensorDatabaseFrontend.dll
C:\MedCom\bin\TensorDBProxyReturn.dll
C:\MedCom\bin\TensorMacroOcx.ocx
C:\MedCom\bin\TensorPbExt.dll
C:\MedCom\config\compmgr\MR.pm
C:\MedCom\config\compmgr\Tensor.pm
C:\MedCom\config\compmgr\Tensor_ext.pm
C:\MedCom\config\compmgr\Tensor_ui.pm
C:\MedCom\config\sconf\TensorDatabaseBackend_svc.conf
C:\MedCom\config\sconf\TensorMacroOcx_svc.conf
C:\MedCom\config\sconf\TensorPbExt_svc.conf

Known Issues

This software is not an official release and it is not as tightly integrated into MRease as an official SIEMENS task card. Due to this reason, the following known issues may or may not be solved in the near future.

Current version of DTI Task Card can only deal with axial images with 6 diffusion directions and only works with single b-value series.
Be sure to set the Windows display to 24-bit color-depth to allow fast OpenGL rendering. For some reason, rendering in 32-bit is much slower. (Might be the difference of display cards).
Computing and pre-rendering of a multi-slice data set (e.g. 23 slices) are extremely memory-consuming and may take up to a few minutes.

Further Information

If you have questions or problems about the DTI Task Card, please contact Ruopeng Wang <rpwang@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu>.