Data Format

Input

Since we apply the dcm2nii to unify the format of input data, it can support most types of DICOM files (in folders). Please refer to the author’s webpage for more information [4]. Please also get back to us if you encounter any problems.

Output

All the intermediate files are in compressed NIFTI format (.nii.gz). The final track file is in .trk format. The .trk format is from the TrackVis [17].

Briefly, header section contains following information:

Name Data type Bytes Comment
id_string[6] char 6 ID string for track file, “TRACK”
dim[3] short 6 Dimension of the image volume.
voxel_size[3] float 12 Voxel size of the image volume.
origin[3] float 12 Origin of the image volume.
n_scalars short 2 Number of scalars saved at each track point
s_name[10][20] char 200 Name of each scalar.
n_properties short 2 Number of properties saved at each track.
p_name[10][20] char 200 Name of each property.
vox_to_ras[4][4] float 64 4x4 matrix for voxel to RAS
reserved[444] char 444 Reserved space for future version.
voxel_order[4] char 4 Order of the original image data.
pad2[4] char 4 Paddings.
orient_p[6] float 24 Image orientation of the original image.
pad1[2] char 2 Paddings.
invert_x uchar 1 Inversion/rotation flags
invert_y uchar 1 As above.
invert_x uchar 1 As above.
swap_xy uchar 1 As above.
swap_yz uchar 1 As above.
swap_zx uchar 1 As above.
n_count int 4 Number of tracks stored in this track file.
version int 4 Version number. Current version is 2.
hdr_size int 4 Size of the header, should be 1000.

with data section in following format:

Track Data type Bytes Comment
Track #1 int 4 Number of points in this track, as m.
float (3+n_s)*4 Track Point #1.
float (3+n_s)*4 Track Point #2. Same as above.
float (3+n_s)*4 Track Point #m. Same as above.
float n_p*4 n_p float numbers
Track #2 Same as above.
Track #n Same as above.

By default, we prefined two scalars (FA,MD) and three properties (length,FA,MD) in the generated .trk file, along with six additional values stored in reserved section. These are version_num, num_fibers, mean_length, total_volume, tractFA, tractMD values in float type (single precision).

Again, please visit DataFormat section on TrackVis.org for more detail.