function nii = load_niigz(file)
% LOAD_NIIGZ load a gzipped nifti file
%   nii = LOAD_NIIGZ(file) load nii nifti structure from file. 
%   file should have a .nii.gz extension 
%
%   Requires:
%   load_nii as part of NIFTI library by Jimmy Shen.
% 
%   Example:
%   nii load_niigz('niftyfile.nii.gz'); 
%
%   Author: Adrian V. Dalca, www.mit.edu/~adalca
%   Last Update: May, 2012.


   % requires load_nii as part of NIFTI library by Jimmy Shen.

    % unzip the file. Note, this might over-write a nifti with the same
    % name.
    filenames = gunzip(file);
    
    % read in the nifti
    nii = load_nii(filenames{1});
    
    % delete the file.
    delete(filenames{1});