PACS-based functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

The picture archiving and communication system (PACS) technology reaches its 10th anniversary. Retrospectively no one could foresee the impact the PACS would have to the health care enterprise, but it is common consent today, that PACS is the key technology crucial to daily clinical image operations and especially to image related basic and clinical research. During the past 10 years the PACS has been matured from a research and developmental stage into commercial products which are provided by all major modality and health care equipment vendors. The PACS, originally implemented in the Radiology Department, needs to grow and has already carried well beyond departmental limits conquering all image relevant areas inside the hospital. During the past 10 years a dramatic development in imaging techniques especially within MRI emerged. Advanced 3D- and 4D-MR imaging techniques result in much more images and more complex data objects than ever before which need to be implemented into the existing PACS. These new imaging techniques require intensive post-processing apart from the imaging modality which need to be integrated into the image workflow and the PACS implementation. Along with these new imaging techniques new clinical applications, e.g. stroke detection, and research applications, e.g. study of heart and brain function, in Neurology and Cardiology require changes to the traditional PACS concept. Therefore inter-disciplinary image distribution will become the high-water mark for the next 10 years in the PACS endeavor. This paper focuses on one new advanced imaging technique, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and discusses how fMRI data is defined, what fMRI requires in terms of clinical and research applications and how to implement fMRI in the existing PACS.