We have implemented a weekly quality assurance (QA) protocol in which we assess the stability of the fMRI signal from the Cima.X scanner using the 64-, 32-, and 20-channel head coils and both standard Siemens and CMRR multi-band EPI pulse sequences. The scan protocol is based on the recommendation of John Pyles and colleagues (Pyles et al, OHBM 2020) found here: https://sites.google.com/view/mri-facility-qa. Imaging is done on a FUNSTAR phantom in the 64- and 32-channel coils using custom 3D-printed phantom holders (I’m quite proud of the holders; I’ll make a detailed post bragging about them later). Stability is assessed using the Functional Imaging Federated Informatics Research Environment (FBIRN; see Friedman & Glover, 2006) QA metrics, which includes temporal signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-fluctuation noise ratio (SFNR), and mean ghost percentage. I’ve been using a docker-ized version of the FBIRN QA scripts provided by Dr. Chandana Kodiweera of the Dartmouth Brain Imaging Center found here: https://hub.docker.com/r/diffdocker/fbirnqa.
The plan is to post detailed weekly QA measures to a shared Box folder that will be made available to MindCORE researchers upon request. I’ll post summary graphs of SNR, SFNR, and mean ghost percentage for each of the head coils and each of the scan sequences in a separate post and will make further regular posts with updated longitudinal data. For now, I’ll include the output of the FBIRN QA for one of the scans with the 64-channel coil to give you a flavor of the types of measures we’re tracking with these scans.
Phantom QA results for 64-channel CMRR Multi-band factor = 3 scan (4/8/25) 
Odd-even difference image
Mean image
Standard deviation image
SFNR image
Acquisition parameters:
| dimensions | 106x106x69x200 |
| spacing | 2mmx2mmx2mm |
| gap | 0mmx0mmx0mm |
| scanner | Cima.X |
| psdname | |
| examnumber | d9a9a0b2-2cfa-4d |
| studyid | Stability_20250408 |
| seriesnumber | 6 |
| runnumber | 1-200 |
| scanningsequence | GR/EP |
| sequencevariant | SK |
| magneticfield | 3 |
| description | ses-64ch_func-bold_acq-cmrrstd_task-tsnr |
| scandate | 2025-04-08 |
| scantime | 09:48:06 |
| tr | 2000 |
| te | 30 |
| operator | |
| flipangle | 79 |
| prescribedslicespacing | 2 |
| frequencydirection | 1 |
| acquisitionmatrix | 106 106 |
| bandwidth | 192.284 |
| receivecoilname | HeadNeck_64_CS |
| transmitcoilname | Body |
| institution | THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA |
| examdescription | ACTIVE KIRWAN |
| scanner | AWP213018 |
| scannermanufacturer | Siemens Healthineers |
| scannermodelname | MAGNETOM Cima.X |
| ti | |
| protocolname | ses-64ch_func-bold_acq-cmrrstd_task-tsnr |
| institutionaddress | UPenn |
| institutionaldepartmentname | MindCORE Neuroimaging Facility |
| acquisitiondatetime | 20250408094804.300000 |
| volumetricproperties | DISTORTED |
| scanoptions | PFP/FS/PER |
| mracquisitiontype | 2D |
| sequencename | epfid2d1_106 |
| angioflag | N |
| numaverages | 1 |
| imagingfrequency | 123.253286 |
| imagednucleus | 1H |
| spacingbetweenslices | 2 |
| numphaseencodingsteps | 106 |
| echotrainlength | 80 |
| percentsampling | 100 |
| percentphasefieldofview | 100 |
| scannerserialnumber | 213018 |
| softwareversions | syngo MR XA61 |
| triggertime | |
| beatrejectionflag | N |
| cardiacnumberofimages | 1 |
| inplanephaseencodingdirection | COL |
| variableflipangleflag | N |
| sar | 0.01584647112671 |
| contentqualification | RESEARCH |
| acquisitionnumber | 1 |
| instancenumber | 1 |
| numtemporalpositions | 200 |
| imagecomments | Not for diagnostic use, Unaliased MB3/PE3/LB |
| samplesperpixel | 1 |
| photometricinterpretation | MONOCHROME2 |
| rows | 106 |
| columns | 106 |
| bitsallocated | 16 |
| bitsstored | 16 |
| highbit | 15 |
| lossyimagecompression | 00 |
| echonumber | 0 |
| pixelbandwidth | 1814 |
References
Friedman, L., & Glover, G. H. (2006). Report on a multicenter fMRI quality assurance protocol. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 23(6), 827–839. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.20583
Pyles, J., Verstynen, T., Magerkurth, J., Weiskopf, N., Golay, X., & Inglis, B. (2020, June). 2019 MR Facility Quality Assurance: A publicly available protocol. Abstract presented at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Annual Meeting. https://www.humanbrainmapping.org/files/2020/OHBM_2020_Virtual_Abstracts_2.pdf