XNAT-based data management and brain MRI analysis workflow

Collaborator: Chris Butson, PhD
Department: Biomedical Engineering

Project:
We have developed an imaging informatics framework, enabling data storage, data management and analysis of brain MRI images in a secured environment.
The imaging informatics platform XNAT, used as a research database, is available in the protected environment of CHPC (Center for High Performance Computing), enabling the management of PHI data in a HIPAA compliant environment. If needed, new incoming data can be de-identified when importing DICOM images to a new project.
Various image analysis tasks have been built around this XNAT infrastructure, enabling data processing in a computational server and upload of output images back to XNAT. Available imaging workflows include inter-modality registration, structural MRI analysis via FreeSurfer and Diffusion Tensor Imaging analysis.

Progress:
This framework has been used in a NeuroScience Initiative grant focusing on Deep Brain Stimulation. This clinical study included multiple time-points and various image modalities, such as MP2RAGE, T2-weighted image, CT acquisition, and multi-shell DWI data. Processed data were used in subsequent analysis.