NAME

       minctecat - convert a minc format file to an Ecat7 format file

SYNOPSIS

       minctoecat [<options>] <infile.mnc> <outfile.v>

       minctoecat [-help]

DESCRIPTION

       minctoecat will convert a 2D image, a 3D volumes or a 4D dynamic volumes written in minc file format to a
       2D, 3D or 4D Ecat7 file.  Whereas the Ecat7 format has been  designed  for  PET  volume  issued  by  Ecat
       scanners (CTI/SIEMENS - Knoxville, TN, USA) it reads any minc volume type (static PET, dynamic PET, aMRI,
       fMRI, labels) natively delivered by any tomograph brand and transform it to a viable Ecat7 file  in  term
       of  number of dimensions, dimension size, dimension step, orientation, spatial position, voxel values and
       voxel unit.  Furthermore, it tries the best as it can to fill  optional  Ecat7  header  fields  from  the
       available minc variables and attributes. By default, it extracts these additional information from common
       minc variables, namely: patient_variable, study_variable, acquisition_variable. In the  case  of  volumes
       originally  delivered  by  an  Ecat PET scanners, then, other variable are generally available within the
       minc header: ecat_acquisition_variable, ecat_main and ecat_sub-header_variable.  There, for a  such  minc
       volume,  the  conversion yields a Ecat7 volume almost identical to the original native volume in terms of
       header fields.  The user can alter this behaviour using the ignore-list options (see the option section).

OPTIONS

       Note that options can be specified in abbreviated form (as long as they are  unique)  and  can  be  given
       anywhere on the command line.

Command specific options

       -ignore_patient_variable: Ignore information from the minc patient variable (MIpatient).

       -ignore_study_variable: Ignore information from the minc study variable (MIstudy).

       -ignore_acquisition_variable: Ignore information from the minc acquisition variable (MIacquisition).

       -ignore_ecat_accquisition_variable:   Ignore   information   from  the  minc  ecat  acquisition  variable
       (MIecat_acquisition).

       -ignore_ecat_main_variable: Ignore information from the minc ecat-mainheader variable (MIecat-main).

       -ignore_ecat_subheader_variable:   Ignore   information   from   the   minc    ecat-subheader    variable
       (MIecat-subheader).

       -no_decay_corr_fctr:   do   not  regenerate  the  decay  correction  factors  employed  as  part  as  the
       reconstruction of the original PET volume. The correction factors is a  field  in  the  ecat  sub-headers
       which  can  be  used by processing programs. By default, if the volume is a PET volume ,those factors are
       regenerated. This option has no interest in the case of non PET data.

       -label: Treats voxel as integer values instead of floating point values. In this case, the scale  factors
       and the calibration factors are both set to unity. This option is particularly useful when the input minc
       files is a volume of labels.

General options

       -help: Print summary of command-line options and abort

       -version: Print the program's version and abort

KNOWN BUGS

       No bug listed so far :=)

SEE ALSO

       ecattominc(1), rawtominc(1), minctoraw(1), dicomtominc(1)

AUTHOR

       Anthonin Reilhac (anthonin.reilhac@cermep.fr)

COPYRIGHTS

       Copyrights 2005 by Anthonin Reilhac

                                                                                                   minctoecat(1)