Starting the PCARDM Tool
The PCARDM tool is started with the Cardiac MRI button from the PMOD ToolBox
or by directly dragging image files onto the above button.
The user interface of PCARDM consists of four pages which can be selected by tabs:
1.DB Load page: This page is only available when using PMOD databases.
2.Stress (Perfusion) page: Page for the step-wise analysis of the stress scan.
3.Rest (Perfusion) page: Same page as for the stress scan, but for analyzing the rest scan. Definitions resulting from the stress analysis can be used as initial settings to be improved.
4.Scores (Qualitative) page: Page for interactively assigning visual scores to the heart sectors.
These pages is described in separate sections of this guide.
Step-Wise Processing
Flow quantification on the Stress (Perfusion) and Rest (Perfusion) pages is organized by a stepwise progression towards the end result. On each processing stage the user has to take some action such as data loading, heart sector definition, or kinetic modeling and then start the next processing step with the red action button located in the lower right. As soon as the result is calculated, it will be shown on the next page representing the new processing stage. The cascade of stages is available by the selection area in the upper right.
It conveniently allows inspecting the results of prior stages without initiating any calculations. To repeat a calculation with modified parameters, the action button in the lower right has to be activated again. The idea is to first fully process stress data, and then the rest data.
Convenience Buttons
Next to the action button is an area with two or three buttons
offering the following functions:
|
Hide the parameters panel to free some space in the user interface. With the panel hidden, the icon changes to |
|
Button to copy the definitions specified on the Stress (Perfusion) page to the Rest (Perfusion) page. The idea is that the analysis is first performed with the stress data, and then the stress definitions are adjusted to the rest images. |
|
Display help information for the current page. |
. When this button is activated, the panel is shown again.
Protocols
PCARDM allows saving the final processing configuration as a protocol. Such a protocol includes definition of the input data as well as the parameters of the different processing stages. It is advised saving a protocol after every completed data processing, so that at any later time the configuration can be retrieved, verified and modified to try variations of the processing parameters.
Configurations
The PCARDMR tool can be configured according to user preferences in a dialog window as illustrated below.
The Heart orientation configuration is important. It should be configured in such a way, that the apex appears as the first slice after loading, i.e. as the leftmost image in the display. Please make sure that when loading images of a new study type that this requirement is met.