Sync MRI data

Most data has the PET and CT acquired on the same machine in the same study. The patient has not moved between scans, with the result that the data is synchronized. When MRI data is used in place of the CT data, the MRI data comes from a different machine at a different time. Thus the patient position is not likely to be synchronized between the 2 data-sets. (See demo

This is a manual process where you display the MRI and PET images and the fusion between them. Since this is a manual process you may wish to save the results. There are up to 10 locations where the data can be saved, so the spinner is set at 1 to 10 and is usually labeled by the patient name or something else which is easy to connect to the particular study.

Many times CT high resolution lung scans are used in place of MRI studies. In almost all cases they will be aligned and you won't need to do anything. With MRI scans the situation is different. MRI and PET/CT are different machines and there is no demand to cross calibrate them. Likewise, it is common that there can be months between the scans, so the patient is not placed in the same relative position. Thus is it common for MRI scans to need a manual alignment. If the registration error is beyond a reasonable limit you will see a log report

The sync starts with the axial view with the Z direction matching the appropriate slices. The Reset button zeros out X,Y,Z in all (axial, sagittal. coronal) views. The log report gives you a reasonable starting point. In this case you would type in the Z value as 131 (followed by Enter). In the end I chose a value of 129 which was quite close to the suggested value.

You probably want to align the MRI data in all orientations (axial first, then coronal and sagittal). There are 3 different sets of z, x and y values, one for each orientation. (Just to remind you, there is a demo)

The best resolution data in MRI scans are usually in the sagittal view. You may use whatever you have available.
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