timelapsed-hrpqct 2.0.24

Longitudinal HR-pQCT timelapse analysis workflow with multistack support

TimelapsedHRpQCT v2

Quantifying remodelling activity from time-lapsed HR-pQCT images of the distal radius or tibia.

This repository is the v2 codebase. The original v1 repository is here: https://github.com/wallematthias/TimelapsedHRpQCTv1/tree/main

Changes from v1:

• Added functionality for multistack images
• Elastix Backend for registration
• More detailed remodelling outputs

Citation

If you use this tool in a publication, please cite:

• Walle M, Whittier DE, Schenk D, Atkins PR, Blauth M, Zysset P, Lippuner K, Muller R, Collins CJ. Precision of bone mechanoregulation assessment in humans using longitudinal high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography in vivo. Bone. 2023;172:116780.

For related methodology, cite:

• Whittier DE, Walle M, Schenk D, Atkins PR, Collins CJ, Zysset P, Lippuner K, Muller R. A multi-stack registration technique to improve measurement accuracy and precision across longitudinal HR-pQCT scans. Bone. 2023;176:116893.
• Walle M, Duseja A, Whittier DE, Vilaca T, Paggiosi M, Eastell R, Muller R, Collins CJ. Bone remodeling and responsiveness to mechanical stimuli in individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 2024;39(2):85-94.
• Walle M, Gabel L, Whittier DE, Liphardt AM, Hulme PA, Heer M, Zwart SR, Smith SM, Sibonga JD, Boyd SK. Tracking of spaceflight-induced bone remodeling reveals a limited time frame for recovery of resorption sites in humans. Science Advances. 2024;10(51):eadq3632.

What The Pipeline Does

For each subject, the pipeline can:

1. Import raw AIM sessions into stack-level working artifacts.
2. Generate missing full, trabecular, cortical, and segmentation volumes.
3. Register each stack longitudinally across sessions.
4. In multistack mode, estimate stack-to-stack correction transforms from per-stack superstacks.
5. Apply the canonical final transforms once to original grayscale, mask, and segmentation data.
6. Fill missing support regions in the fused transformed outputs.
7. Compute pairwise remodelling and trajectory metrics.

Modes

• regular: timelapse registration, transform application, and analysis without multistack correction or filling.
• multistack: full pipeline including stack correction and filling.

Install

Preferred installation:

pip install timelapsed-hrpqct

Python support: 3.11, 3.12, 3.13.

Minimal setup in a fresh conda environment:

conda create -n timelapsed-hrpqct python=3.13 -y
conda activate timelapsed-hrpqct
pip install timelapsed-hrpqct

Install into an existing environment:

pip install timelapsed-hrpqct

This package is pip-first and pulls runtime dependencies (including aimio-py and itk-elastix) automatically.

Development install:

pip install -e ".[test]"

Optional conda environment for local development:

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate timelapsed-hrpqct

The installable package name is timelapsed-hrpqct, and the import package is timelapsedhrpqct.

The CLI uses the bundled package default config (src/timelapsedhrpqct/configs/defaults.yml) automatically if you do not pass --config.

Slicer GUI (Developer Mode)

Until the extension is available in the Slicer Extensions Manager, you can use it in developer mode:

• Slicer extension repository: https://github.com/wallematthias/SlicerTimelapsedHRpQCT

Quick steps:

1. Clone TimelapsedHRpQCTSlicer.
2. In Slicer: Edit -> Application Settings -> Modules.
3. Add module path: <repo>/TimelapsedHRpQCTSlicer/TimelapsedHRpQCT.
4. Restart Slicer and open module TimelapsedHRpQCT.
5. Click Install / Update timelapsed-hrpqct inside the module.

Quick Start

Preview discovery:

timelapse import /path/to/raw_data --dry-run

By default raw files are kept in place (no sourcedata/hrpqct copy):

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data

Enable copying raw files into sourcedata/hrpqct only when desired:

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data --copy-raw-inputs

Enable moving raw files into dataset root sub-*/site-*/ses-* layout only when desired:

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data --restructure-raw

Undo restructure moves (preview first):

timelapse undo-restructure /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset --dry-run
timelapse undo-restructure /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset

Run the default workflow (regular mode):

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data

Run while reusing pre-existing or custom masks (skip generation):

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data --skip-mask-generation

Use this when your input already includes valid masks (for example TRAB_MASK, CORT_MASK, FULL_MASK, REGMASK, or ROI*) and you do not want the pipeline to regenerate them.

Input discovery is recursive, so your source folder can be either flat/unstructured or organized in a BIDS/MIDS-style nested layout. When filename parsing is ambiguous, discovery can fall back to AIM header metadata (Index Patient, Index Measurement, Site). Left/right site aliases are supported (RL/RR/TL/TR/KL/KR) while generic radius/tibia/knee remains fully supported.

Run the full multistack workflow (if needed):

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data --mode multistack

Run the regular single-stack style workflow:

timelapse run /path/to/raw_data --mode regular

Run stages manually:

timelapse import /path/to/raw_data
timelapse generate-masks /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset
timelapse register /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset
timelapse stackcorrect /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset
timelapse transform /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset
timelapse fill /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset
timelapse analyse /path/to/raw_data/imported_dataset

Pass --config /path/to/other.yml only when you want to override the built-in default.

The default analysis space is baseline_common, which is also the fastest option. pairwise_fixed_t0 is available for single-stack datasets, but it is slower because each timepoint pair is resampled during analysis.

Incremental Reruns

The run command is incremental:

• already imported sessions are skipped
• imported stacks with complete masks/seg are skipped by mask generation
• existing baseline transforms are reused
• existing final transforms are reused
• existing fused transformed sessions are reused
• existing filled sessions are reused
• existing analysis is reused unless you pass analysis overrides like --thr, --clusters, or --visualize

This makes it practical to rerun the pipeline after fixing one stage or adding new sessions without recomputing everything else.

Mask Roles And Naming

Discovery now supports both canonical and generic mask roles from filenames.

Examples:

# Distal radius (DR), standard trab/cort masks across sessions
SUBJ001_DR_T1.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T1_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T1_CORT_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T2.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T2_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T2_CORT_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T3.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T3_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T3_CORT_MASK.AIM

# Distal tibia (DT)
SUBJ002_DT_T1.AIM
SUBJ002_DT_T1_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ002_DT_T1_CORT_MASK.AIM

# Knee (KN)
SUBJ003_KN_T1.AIM
SUBJ003_KN_T1_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ003_KN_T1_CORT_MASK.AIM

# Optional generic masks
SUBJ001_DR_T1_REGMASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T1_ROI1.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T1_ROI2.AIM
SUBJ001_DR_T1_MASK1.AIM

Behavior:

• REGMASK is preferred for registration when present.
• If no REGMASK exists, registration falls back to trab+cort union, then full, then generic MASK* unions.
• For analysis compartments, ROI* masks are preferred when present across sessions.
• If no ROI* masks are present, regmask is used as analysis ROI.
• Otherwise analysis uses configured compartments (or available trab/cort/full fallbacks).

Multistack Filename Parsing Notes

If your raw files are already split into physical stacks, include a stack token in the filename:

SUBJ001_DT_STACK01_T1.AIM
SUBJ001_DT_STACK01_T1_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DT_STACK01_T1_CORT_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DT_STACK02_T1.AIM
SUBJ001_DT_STACK02_T1_TRAB_MASK.AIM
SUBJ001_DT_STACK02_T1_CORT_MASK.AIM

Accepted stack token styles include STACK01, STACK_01, and STACK-01.

Notes:

• If STACK... is present, files are grouped by that stack index during discovery.
• If STACK... is missing, the image is treated as a single acquisition and import splits by import.stack_depth (default 168).
• If site token is missing, discovery uses discovery.default_site (default tibia).
• REGMASK is optional and overrides registration mask selection when present.
• ROI* masks are optional and override analysis compartments when consistently present across sessions.

Repository Layout

• src/timelapsedhrpqct/workflows/: orchestration for each pipeline stage
• src/timelapsedhrpqct/processing/: reusable algorithmic and I/O helpers
• src/timelapsedhrpqct/dataset/: discovery, layout, artifact records, derivative paths
• src/timelapsedhrpqct/analysis/: remodelling analysis logic
• src/timelapsedhrpqct/configs/: bundled default YAML configuration
• tests/: unit, characterization, and end-to-end workflow tests

Documentation

Detailed documentation lives in docs/:

• Documentation Index
• Installation
• Usage
• Usage Examples
• Annotated Defaults
• Multistack Algorithm
• Timelapsed Analysis
• Settings Reference
• API Reference

Testing

Run the full test suite:

pytest -q

License

This repository is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

Packaging

The repository includes:

• environment.yml for local conda environments
• .github/workflows/ci.yml for tests and pip install smoke checks
• .github/workflows/publish-pypi.yml for trusted-publisher PyPI releases
• conda-recipe/ for conda packaging