The BIDSconvertR
The BIDSconvertR R-package converts MRI DICOM data into BIDS-specification.
Note
We welcome feedback on usability or new features for the BIDSconvertR, which is still in development.
Aim
The goal of BIDSconvertR is to provide a workflow that can:
open the BIDS conversion to both beginner and advanced R-users
convert DICOM to NIfTI data using dcm2niix (https://github.com/rordenlab/dcm2niix)
structure this data according to the BIDS specification (https://bids-specification.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)
validate the manually entered sequence-ID’s by color-coding
enable easy access to the BIDS-Validator (Website/Docker) (https://bids-standard.github.io/bids-validator/)
provide the papayaWidget viewer (https://github.com/muschellij2/papayaWidget) for inspecting images
enable continuous application during data acquisition in ongoing studies
Features
- Creation of a ‘user_settings’ file that
stores all settings and
can be used to relaunch the conversion in case of new acquired data in ongoing studies
- Optional renaming of subject-ID’s or session-ID’s
Extraction of the subject-ID’s
Removal of redundant strings
- Conversion with DCM2NIIX (Chris Rorden)
Anonymization of metadata for the BIDS Folder
Extraction of metadata with potentially identifying information that is stored in a separate folder
- Shiny-App for BIDS sequence editing
Color-coded BIDS validation for manually entered sequence-ID’s
Selection of ‘relevant’ sequences for the BIDS folder
- Automatic start of BIDS-Validator
in Docker if it is installed or
on the BIDS-Validator homepage
- Shiny-App for navigating through the BIDS folder
image viewing and visual quality control
When new files or sequences are added, the’sequence mapper’ determines whether they are new. Then it reopens until everything is declared in accordance with BIDS. Files that have already been processed are bypassed.
Technical requirements
Supported and tested on Microsoft 10 and Ubuntu 22.04.
Not tested on MacOS, but it should work. You could try it out and let me know if there are any problems.
What the user needs to know to apply the BIDSconvertR
Important
What it isn’t:
A fully automated workflow that takes care of everything. You must have a basic understanding of files, folders, and DICOMS, as described below.
What exactly is a folder or file? What happened to my data?
What is a DICOM-containing folder?
What is the difference between a subject- and sequence-ID?
What exactly is BIDS?
How to create valid BIDS sequence names?
So, if you can manually rename and restructure the folders according to BIDS, you can run the tool to scale things up.
Overview:
Workflow (Detailed):
Workflow (optional file cleaning):
Workflow (rest):
Additional information: