Doable but slow, specially with slow media like CD, But, when this CD is made according to the standard, there's a better way. If we have no more information then that, we need to open the CD, look at every file on it and check if its a DICOM file, read it, figure out what's in it and decide if this is what we are looking for. Let's say we got a CD from someone that tells us there's DICOM files on this CD with the information of the patient we are looking for. It is worth staying a bit longer on this figure because it has a lot of valuable information in it so lets work it top to bottom. The first figure in the DIOM standard makes sense eventually The picture above, which is by the way the first figure in the DICOM standard (page 10 of chapter 1), explains that very well although when I first looked at thirteen years ago it it didn't mean anything to me. They can communicate over TCP/IP network connection or they can exchange files over some physical media. There are two ways DICOM application can collaborate with one another. So when creating your DICOM images if you intend to create DICOMDIR for them, add these elements too. The mandatory elements of the DICOMDIR nodes are not 1-2-1 with the mandatory elements in the DICOM Objects.įor example Study ID which is Type 2 in DICOM Image objects is Type 1 in DICOMDIR STUDY Record.The DICOMDIR file does not reference them. The CD/DVD may include other files that are not DICOM.

The file names of DICOM files on a standard DICOM CD/DVD should be capital alphanumeric up to 8 characters with no suffix.

The DICOMDIR file include key attributes from the data on the media such as Patient Name, Patient ID, Study ID, Study Date.

DICOMDIR is a DICOM Object holding a sequence of DICOMDIR records nodes each having a type like PATIENT, STUDY, SERIES and IMAGE.

The DICOMDIR file has in it records that hold paths to DICOM files on the media.

Standard DICOM CD/DVD should have a file named DICOMDIR in its root directory.

Here's a list with quick information about DICOMDIR: Linux Man Pages dcmmkdir: Create a DICOMDIR.ĭICOMDIR, Have you heard this term? What does it mean? Do I need this in my system? Lots of questions. The dcmmkdir utility creates a DICOMDIR file from the specified referenced DICOM files according to the DICOM Part 11. Cannot create DICOMDIR file using GDCM library.

Offis also has a tool for checking DICOM files against the standard. So when creating your DICOM images if you intend to create DICOMDIR.

What is a dicomdir file