Series Maker

Treatment machine dev (development) mode allows greater latitude in setting machine parameters. However, RTIMAGE files captured in dev mode lack some metadata (such as references to a plan, plan beam, and identity of the treatment machine) that the AQA platform requires.

The Series Maker allows you to convert these files into fully defined DICOM series that can be analyzed on the AQA platform.

Using Series Maker

From the home page, click the Series Maker link. This will show the upload page:

Three types of DICOM files are needed to construct a new series:

Source Image: Uploaded by user, and provide the pixels for analysis. They can be any combination of dev and production images.
Plan: Exactly one plan must be specified. This can be done either explicitly by uploading the plan with the images, or implicitly by uploading at least one production image that references a plan.
Template: These are production images that provide the DICOM metadata required to fill in the information missing in dev images. They are either uploaded by the user, or, are automatically extracted from the AQA database from a previous analysis via their plan reference.

From the home page, click the Series Maker link.

Note: It is recommended that before making series, that at least one set of production images be delivered and analyzed. This provides a default set of template images for the subsequent dev images.

Step 1: Upload Image Files

Drag and drop the image files and optionally a plan file. Click 'Next' and a page similar to the one below will be shown:

Step 3: Drag and Drop

Image files are listed on the left, grouped by series. Open slots for plan beams are on the right. Drag the desired image into the appropriate plan beam slot.

It is not necessary to fill all slots.
Images do not need to be slotted in chronological order.
As images are dropped into the plan beams, the G, C, and Mv values will turn red or green. These indicate whether the Gantry angle, Collimator angle and energy of the dropped RTIMAGE match those of the template beam (green means they match). This is only provided as a visual aid, and a series will be created regardless of whether they match.

Step 2: Set parameters

Set the machine to the one that the image files were delivered on. The machine does not need to match the plan's machine, but it must match the collimator type of the plan's machine.

If the plan is already in the AQA database, then it will pick the Procedure for you. If not, then you must choose.

The PatientName and PatientID default to those in the image and plan, and can be overridden.

The 'Download File' is the name that will be given to the downloaded zip file. If helpful, change it to something that describes the data set.

Change the patient name and ID if appropriate. Often these reflect the machine name.

Clicking the 'Reset' button will reset the page to the initial values.

Step 4: Run

Clicking the 'Run' button will run the analysis.

Alternate Step 4: Download

Clicking the 'Download' button will make the series and download it to your computer as a zip file. The zip file can be extracted on your computer, or, can be uploaded (without unzipping) back to AQA via the Run Procedure link.

Note Regarding Procedure Selection

If the referenced plan is known to AQA, and is associated with a procedure (e.g. Phase2), then the interface will automatically choose that procedure. On the other hand, if the plan can not be associated with a procedure (if the plan was made in the user's treatment planning system), then it is the user's responsibility to choose the procedure.

Detailed List of DICOM Metadata Processing

See: DICOM Metadata Specifics

Detailed Description of RTIMAGE List

Within each series, the images are sorted in the order they were acquired. Each item represents an image and has the following information:

The number of the image within the series (ordered by acquisition time).
The beam name, or, for dev images, the gantry angle, collimator angle, and energy.
The capture time since the start of the series. The first will always have the time '00:00'.
A thumbnail image of the RTIMAGE. Hovering the mouse over this will display a full sized image. Each image is annotated with an MD5 hash of the bytes of the image bytes. This can be useful for determining if two images are the same or not.
The name of the file (minus any '.dcm' extension). For screen space reasons, long file names will be abbreviated using only the last characters of the name. Hovering the mouse over the file name will display the full name.