FreeSurfer 5.3 QA Tools

Deprecated

Note: The QA tools described in this page were developed for FreeSurfer 5.3. For versions 7+, use the following executable to compute QA stats:

qatools.py --help

The QA Tools are intended to be used in assessing the quality of one or more FreeSurfer recons. These scripts are capable of verifying all steps in the FreeSurfer recon-all stream were executed and in the correct order, as well as verifying all files exist and were created in the correct order. Additionally, these scripts can be used to detect potential outlier regions in the aseg.mgz within a dataset, calculate SNR and WM intensity values, and collect detailed snapshots of various volumes. The following people have been major contributors in developing these scripts: David Koh, Stephanie Lee, Jenni Pacheco, Vasanth Pappu, and Louis Vinke.

The QA Tools scripts are a work-in-progress. Any feedback, bug reports, or feature requests are appreciated (email vinke[at]nmr.mgh.harvard.edu).

Click here to view steps for an alternate QA procedure using Qdec.

Setup

Click the link below to download the QA Tools scripts. Extract all the contents of the tar file into a new directory. Source your local version of FreeSurfer, set your subjects directory variable, and set the QA Tools path:

<source freesurfer>

In tcsh:
setenv SUBJECTS_DIR /path/to/your/subjects_dir
setenv QA_TOOLS /path/to/QATools/scripts

In bash:
export SUBJECTS_DIR=/path/to/your/subjects_dir
export QA_TOOLS=/path/to/QATools/scripts

QAtools_v1.2.tar.gz

Dependencies

QA Tools requires:

Getting Started

Run the following command to view explanations for all the QA Tools options:

$QA_TOOLS/recon_checker -help

By default QA-Tools will check the status log, the order files were created, the aseg for any outliers, create snapshots of slices throughout various volumes, and calculate SNR and WM measures. See the flags below if you want to disable one or more of these options.

Arguments

Required Flagged Arguments

-s <subject1> [<subject2>...]

Case ID for one or more subjects located in $SUBJECTS_DIR (use -s-file as alternative)

Optional Flagged Arguments

-subjid <subject1> [<subject2>...]

Specify subject(s) to process

-s-file

Specify a file with a list of subjects. May be used instead of -s or -subjid

-snaps-out

Full path and name of snapshots HTML file. Default: "$SUBJECTS_DIR/QA/QA_check.html"

-snaps-detailed

Take a more detailed set of snapshots

-snaps-overwrite

Take all snapshots, overwriting any existing snapshots

-no-snaps

Do not take snapshots

-snaps-only

Only take snapshots

-outputFOF <file-order list>

Specify a file which lists the proper order of output files

-asegLUT <file>

Specify a file containing aseg outlier lookup table

-gen-outputFOF

Generate the file order list from the first subject

-gen-asegLUT <file>

Generate an aseg look up table from your subjects that can be used to identify aseg outliers

-nocheck-aseg

Do not check for aseg outliers

-nocheck-status

Do not check status log file for each subject

-nocheck-outputFOF

Do not check output order of files for each subject

-nocheck-SNR-WM

Do not calculate SNR and WM measures for each subject

-completeStatusFile <file>

Compares each subject's status log file to the specified log file

-completeStatusFiles <file>

Compares each subject's status log file to each of the complete status logs listed in <file>

-ignore <process1> [<process2> ...]

Specify one or more FreeSurfer processes to ignore while checking status files

Future Directions

Release Notes

v1.1 (3/5/2012)

Known Issues

For internal users

If you want to disable your screensaver so snaps can be taken overnight, set the value in

to the number of minutes you want to pass before your screensaver activates (eg 960 for 16 hours). Also, go to System Preferences -> Screensaver and click on Power Management. In the "On AC Power" tab, choose Never in both of the pull down menus.

QATools (last edited 2021-08-12 10:51:08 by AndrewHoopes)