NAIMS-IR About Downloading

Before you begin:

To download data from the NAIMS Imaging Repository you will first need to create an account using an official email address of your institution. Your account will need to be approved by an administrator before you are given the ability to upload or download data (this may take a few days); you will be notified by email when this happens.

If you do not already have an account, click the Sign in button in the top right corner. You will then be prompted with an interface to login or create a new account.

We encourage you to have the download page open in other tab so that you can follow along with this guide.

STEP 1: Understanding the search page The NAIMS-IR database search page is where you will browse the available datasets, and make a selection of the data you would like to request.

The search page is divided into two windows. The light-blue filter window, and the dark-blue browser window.

The browser window is where you can see all of the available datasets. When you first open the download page, it will display all of the studies. Data in the NAIMS-IR is stored hierarchically in the following levels: STUIDES, PARTICIPANTS, SCANS, and SEQUENCES. Clicking on a study will step down a level and display all the participants for that particular study. Clicking on a participant will step down a further level and display all of the scans for that particular participant. You can use the forward and backwards arrows located on the top left to navigate back up to the study level.

The filter window is where you will refine what data you are looking for. When you press the apply filters button, data that does not match the fields that you have selected will be hidden from the browser window.

STEP 2: Creating a query Using the filter window, you can create a query to narrow down the data shown in the browser window.

By default all filters are disabled. To enable a filter, click the check box to the left of the filter name.

There are several different types of filters. Each is described below:

participant Age: Specify a Min and a Max age of the desired participants (in years). If you want only participants of an exact age, use the same number in both the min and max field.

MS Type: Choose a subset of MS types to show only participants that fall into one of the selected types. The "OR" displayed on the right means that participants that fall into at least one of the selected categories will be shown in the browser window.

Sex: Choose a subset of of sexes to show only participants that fall into one of the selected types. When this filter is not active (unchecked) all sexes will be shown.

EDSS: Specify a Min and a Max EDSS for the desired participants. EDSS is the Expanded Disability Score used to measure the severity of MS symptoms.

Field Strength: Specify a MIN and a MAX MRI field strength (in Tesla) to show only MRI images that fall into the desired range.

Scan Date: Specify a MIN and a MAX date (using the YYYY-MM-DD format) to show only images that fall in the desired range.

Scanner Type: Choose a subset of scanner types to only display images that were captured on one of the selected scanners.

Sequences: Choose a subset of sequence types to display only participants that have one/all of the selected types. Using the AND/OR button on the right you can choose whether you want the participants to have all of the selected sequences (AND), or at least one of the selected sequences (OR).

Body Part Examined: Choose a subset of body parts to only display images that examined the desired body parts.

As an example, if you wanted to find "All male participants ages 40 to 60 who have scans from 2015 to 2018 taken on a 3T Philips scanner" your query would look like this:

STEP 3: Adding data to the cart On the browser window, to the right side of each data entry there is a button to add this data to my cart. Each hierarchical level of data (study, scan, participant, sequence, etc.) can be added to the cart, which will add all data below it to the cart. As an example, checking the add to cart button on participant X will add all of the available images of participant X to the cart (which can be seen when you step down a level into participant X, as the sub data will all be checked). Note that only sub data that matches the applied filters of participant X will be added in this scenario.

If you check the box to add an image to the cart, the "Add to Cart" box for all data entries will become ticked on the level above it (see by pressing the back arrow at the top right). This means that if you add only one participant from study X to the cart, Study X will show as added to the cart; however, please note that this does not mean that you have added all of the data for study X to the cart.

STEP 4: Requesting data Once you have the data that you want in your cart, press the SUBMIT button. This will show you a summary of the data in your cart, and ask you to confirm your selection. If you are happy with the data, proceed to the next step by pressing the continue button. You will then be prompted to complete the Data Access Proposal form.

Once you have completed your request, and administrator will need to review the form before you are able to download the data. You will be notified by email when the data is ready for download, containing instructions on how to do so.