NIfTI (file format)

Last revised by Henry Knipe on 6 Dec 2019

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Moore C, Knipe H, Bell D, NIfTI (file format). Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 23 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-72562

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-72562

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/72562

rID:

72562

Article created:

30 Nov 2019, Candace Makeda Moore

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Candace Makeda Moore had no recorded disclosures.

View Candace Makeda Moore's current disclosures

Last revised:

6 Dec 2019, Henry Knipe ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Henry Knipe had no recorded disclosures.

View Henry Knipe's current disclosures

Revisions:

3 times, by 3 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Sections:

Imaging Technology

Synonyms:

NIfTI-1
NIfTI-2

NIfTI is a type of file format for neuroimaging. Technically there are NIfTI-1 and NIfTI-2 file formats. The NIfTI-2 format is an update on NIfTI-1 that allows more data to be stored. NIfTI files are used very commonly in imaging informatics for neuroscience and even neuroradiology research. In clinical care DICOM files are standard, however, some imaging informatics tools can convert DICOM files to NIfTI format automatically.

History and etymology

NIfTI is an eponymous acronym that comes from the Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative which was a working group at the NIH (National Institutes of Health in the USA) in the early 2000s. The Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative wanted to create a file type that was similar to but improved from the Analyze file format, another type of medical imaging file format. At that time Minc file format (from the Montreal Neurological Institute) and Analyze were the common file types used in neuroimaging research.

Practical Points

NIfTI, DICOM, Minc, and Analyze file formats are all still used (as of 2019) in various contexts. Programs meant for one file type will not work well on another, and therefore file conversion is often necessary. File types are easily recognizable by their extension e.g. .nii for NIfTI or .dcm for DICOM.