nordic fMRI Solution – Enhancing the Development of a Functional Imaging Clinical Practice
During the early years of BOLD imaging, both in research and in the development of clinical applications, software for stimulus delivery and analysis of BOLD imaging data was developed by and for researchers and was often available as freeware. Solutions on the hardware side – for stimulus presentation (auditory or visual), response collection and synchronisation of stimulus delivery and image acquisition – were not provided by one vendor, but were often developed in-house. Multidisciplinary teams of researchers (biophysicist, neuropsychologist, research assistant, statistician, etc.) were required to integrate and implement solutions largely based on the availability of components from multiple vendors and the experience of the scientists. No US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, CE-marked, commercially available fMRI system existed that could be implemented solely by the MR technologist in the clinical setting. Fortunately, this situation has changed.
nordic fMRI Solution
NordicNeuroLab’s functional imaging solutions have been designed with the end user in mind, and the technology and solutions have continued to evolve with the needs of our customers, who span leading research institutions, medical centres, outpatient imaging centres and MRI system manufacturers. An important aspect of producing high-quality fMRI results involves standardisation of the activities performed by the MR technologist. NordicNeuroLab maintains a strong belief that the adoption of fMRI as a clinical diagnostic procedure critically hinges on the availability of easy-to- use tools that promise to yield reliable, repeatable results for the radiologist, treating clinician and neurosurgeon. The ability to streamline the fMRI examination procedure and seamlessly integrate the technology into radiology department workflow is a necessity. This need motivated NordicNeuroLab/NordicImagingLab to develop the nordic fMRI Solution, the only in-house-developed hardware/software solution for simplifying and standardising clinical fMRI exams.
nordicAktiva is the software that provides stimulus presentation and workflow guidance to facilitate the evaluation and comparability of results across exams. The intuitive, instructional interface directs the user through the process of selecting and presenting instructions and stimuli to the patient. The interface comes with a library of ready-to- use clinical paradigms. This capability is then interfaced with the MR scanner for immediate synchronisation with image acquisition.
Our fMRI hardware is the second component of the nordic fMRI Solution (see Figure 1). Nordic’s MR-compatible hardware provides audio-visual stimulus presentation, image synchronisation and response collection capabilities that simplify the complex operations associated with performing fMRI exams. This fully integrated hardware solution provides much flexibility as it is compatible with MR scanners from all major vendors.
nordicICE, and now our new clinical software nordicBrainEx, optimise overall workflow and minimise processing times while incorporating advanced features such as enhanced 2D/3D visualisation of BOLD and DTI tractography, advanced region of interest capabilities and time-course evaluation, easier export of images to picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) and neuronavigation systems and an automated clinical report capability for generating customised reports.
EUROPEAN NEUROLOGICAL REVIEW Figure 2: Surgical Planning
Figure 1: The NordicNeuroLab Hardware System in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner
Top: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) combined structural images are shown: a pre-operative image together with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography (left) and a post-operative control image (right). The Wernicke’s area is located next to the tumour. The image on the right shows the preserved activation in the Wernicke’s area after surgery. Tumour removal appears to be complete based on the structural image. Bottom: Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) and DTI data imported into the neuronavigation system allow intraoperative navigation (Medtronic, StealthStation).
101
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116