MRTDaten

MRTDaten, short for Magnetresonanztomographie-Daten, describe the data produced by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In clinical and research settings MRTDaten include raw k-space measurements as well as reconstructed image data and derived measurements such as segmentation masks, quantitative maps, and tractography results. They cover structural MRI, functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI/DWI), spectroscopy and multi-echo or advanced sequences.

Data formats and metadata vary with the imaging pipeline. Raw MRI data are typically stored in DICOM format, containing scanner parameters, patient identifiers and acquisition details. Processed and analyzed data are commonly represented in NIfTI formats (.nii or .nii.gz) or related derivatives. For research, the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) has become a widely adopted standard for organizing MRTDaten and associated metadata to promote reproducibility and ease of sharing.

Applications and processing are diverse. Structural MRTDaten support anatomical reference, surgical planning and brain morphometry. Functional MRTDaten enable assessment of brain activity and connectivity. Diffusion MRTDaten reveal white matter architecture and microstructure. Common preprocessing steps include field inhomogeneity correction, motion correction, skull stripping, normalization and smoothing, followed by statistical analysis, tractography or quantitative mapping.

Privacy, ethics and governance are central to MRTDaten management. Anonymization or pseudonymization of patient identifiers, secure storage, access controls and compliance with regulations such as the GDPR are standard practices. In research, data sharing often relies on informed consent, data use agreements and clear provenance to enable reproducibility while protecting subjects’ privacy.

Storage, provenance and quality control are ongoing considerations. Versioning, documentation of processing pipelines, and quality assurance metrics help ensure data integrity and traceability throughout life cycles from acquisition to analysis and reuse.