Fig. 1

Principal workflow of creating element maps from mass spectrometry imaging data. During MS analysis, more or less structured raw data is generated from the measurement of a sample. In a first step, this data is converted into a format that is readable for the chosen analysis software. In ELAI for example this format is an Excel File with an in-house format. Subsequently, the list of data is splitted into individual rows corresponding to the measurements of the individual line-by-line scans. Thereafter, the measured values of each element are normalized and transferred into absolute concentrations. In a final step, the calculated concentrations are reconstructed into a final element map. Some of the necessary working steps during data-mining from Excel file to image and mean concentrations and are listed