osirix VS dcm2niix

OsirisX for reading and manipulating the DICOM images

This looks like a 3D reconstruction of a CT image, so it can be colored however the authors want it to be colored. CT imaging in and of itself involves shooting x-rays at the subject being imaged and (essentially) measuring what comes out the other side. As such, CT results (as far as I know) don't have colors 'baked into them'; the information in each pixel is an intensity value that ranges from 0 (no x-rays made it through) to 1 (the detector is saturated with x-rays; 255 may be more realistic than 1 here because 255 is the max number that can be stored in an 8-bit byte). So basically what I think the authors did here is acquire the CT image and then use a medical image viewer like OsiriX to generate a 3D reconstruction of that image. Once such a reconstruction is made, changing colors in it is as simple as changing colors in any other 3D editing software. So in my opinion, the novel/interesting thing here is the thing being imaged, not the image itself (although I will say it's interesting that they were able to isolate JUST the cocaine packets and the bone, with all other soft tissue and organs removed)

You can view the images with https://www.osirix-viewer.com but I would take that disc and see a number of physicians (orthopedic, neuro, physiatry) and ask them for their opinion and to please explain what they see. They should pull the images up and evaluate the spine axially and sagittally (top-down, left-to-right), level by level and point out features to you: discs, exiting nerve roots, etc. It'll become pretty obvious if there's a pattern: stenosis, arthritis, overgrown ligament, etc... Also ask them what they think is appropriate for treatment.

I used https://www.osirix-viewer.com/ and could see the MRI easily. I used this CD reader https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PV958PN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

OsiriX viewer. I got it to view my before/after CT scans to see exactly what happened in surgery. It's pretty wild being able to see inside yourself.

The site: https://www.osirix-viewer.com

The repo: https://github.com/pixmeo/osirix

Keep in mind that DICOM images are always converted to the NIfTI format when dealing with neuroimaging data, so the different software are expecting this image type. You should always keep the original DICOM files in your archive, but convert them to NIfTI and use that as your raw data input. To convert DICOM to NIfTI, you can use a tool like dcm2niix dcm2niix.

When I try to execute the .exe in the link you have provided the program does not run. However, according to this site: https://github.com/rordenlab/dcm2niix! the niix is included in MRIcroGL which I have tried.

The spatial resolution of the scan is typically in the DICOM header, isn't it? Maybe try running the DICOM through something like dcm2niix (https://github.com/rordenlab/dcm2niix) which will convert to a NIFTI formatted image and generate a JSON file from the header. The header support isn't complete, so it might not get things correct from your CT image (or from an animal scanner for that matter), but it's worth a shot. I imagine there are similar tools for CT.