jSIPRO - Analysis tool for magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) involves a huge number of spectra to be processed and analyzed. Several tools enabling MRSI data processing have been developed and widely used. However, the processing programs primarily focus on sophisticated spectra processing and offer limited support for the analysis of the calculated spectroscopic maps. In this paper the jSIPRO (java Spectroscopic Imaging PROcessing) program is presented, which is a java-based graphical interface enabling post-processing, viewing, analysis and result reporting of MRSI data. Interactive graphical processing as well as protocol controlled batch processing are available in jSIPRO. jSIPRO does not contain a built-in fitting program. Instead, it makes use of fitting programs from third parties and manages the data flows. Currently, automatic spectra processing using LCModel, TARQUIN and jMRUI programs are supported. Concentration and error values, fitted spectra, metabolite images and various parametric maps can be viewed for each calculated dataset. Metabolite images can be exported in the DICOM format either for archiving purposes or for the use in neurosurgery navigation systems.