Background/Purpose: Imaging plays a significant role in the daily practice, both clinical and scientific,
of the pediatric neurologist. It remains a challenge to keep up with the ever-evolving
methods of image processing, analysis and visualization. Either for fMRI, diffusion-,
perfusion- or quantitative imaging, there are multiple examples where, especially
when exchanging data between sites, the different locally installed image analysis
tools impair the cooperation or where programming knowledge is required for their
operation.1 Here, we introduce a web-based toolbox that simplifies the visualization and analysis
of medical imaging.
Methods and Results: The web tool is accessible from any web browser and operating system. It doesn't
need an installation. The data can either be loaded locally per drag and drop or can
be collected in a SQL-database. It provides features beyond the standard, such as
overlays for comparison of longitudinal data, lesion-segmentation, 3D surface rendering.
For scientific purposes, hundreds of images can be forwarded in a processing pipeline,
for an automated established analysis, that is, with SPM, FSL, FreeSurfer and Fibertracking.
Furthermore, the web tool can be utilized in the clinical routine, that is, for the
calculation of the penumbra in stroke or the lesion load in multiple sclerosis, where
images are being sent back to the PACS after automatic processing. In the analysis
through the self-explaining interface that includes already more than 250 brain MRIs
of children and adolescents, allowed us to widen our scientific
Conclusion: We introduce an in-house web tool (www.nora-imaging.org). It is aimed to ease the
handling of data coming from modern clinical imaging. Most importantly it provides
a platform for the central processing and analysis of medical imaging data derived
from studies with an emphasis on brain imaging.
