Medical College of Wisconsin Center for Imaging Research Services

Image Preprocessing

The MCW CIR offers image pre‐processing and data analysis as a service, which greatly reduces the burden of image analysis on research teams here at MCW. This work, performed by members of our Technical Support team, described below, is charged through the CIR service center at an hourly rate of $75 per hour. We estimate up to 2 hours of effort is necessary for each imaging exam to:

• Manage data handling
• Compute quantitative maps
• Draw regions of interest (ROI)
• Extract quantitative values of drawn regions of interest
• Return quantified volumes to you in an Excel spreadsheet
• Return the results of a fit linear mixed effects model which considers quantities from ROIs as a function of ROI and experimental conditions.

Data Analysis and Management

The CIR manages a research imaging repository which is interfaced to the MCW Research Computing Center (RCC). This image database infrastructure includes redundant Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT) servers with direct 10Gb ethernet connections to the RCC hardware. A gateway XNAT server is placed in a protected zone on the MCW network for the upload of imaging data sets from external institutions for import to the MCW imaging repository, transfer of images from MCW to collaborating institutions, and off‐site labeling and curation of data.

Preclinical Drop Off (9.4T)

Because animal preparation for pre‐clinical imaging exams includes specialized skill sets, the MCW CIR offers a drop off service for the preparation for and performance of imaging exams. A member of the CIR team can be added to an IACUC protocol and assist with definition of the imaging protocol in the IACUC protocol. When imaging is necessary, that member of the CIR team can then accept custody of the animal, prepare it for imaging, position, and care for the animal during imaging, oversee the animal’s recovery following imaging, and return it to the study team. This service is available at the rate of $289 per hour.

Physics Support and Protocol Design

As a part of this service, the physicist will provide imaging expertise, facilitate project design and/or develop imaging protocol.

The hourly fees for these services can be utilized at $150 for CIR faculty physics support and $75 for CIR technical staff services.

Resources

• iLab
• MRI Safety Training