The ReadDICOM_Series user macro provides an interface to read a set of implicit DICOM files and output a uniform AVS field and a structure containing the data present in the DICOM header. It provides access to the DICOM Header data through a User Interface.
The ReadDICOM_File user macro provide an easy to use interface to read a single (explicitly specified) DICOM file.
Output Ports
Name Type Description out DICOM_Volume A uniform field containing the DICOM images obj DataObject renderable object header DICOM_Header DICOM header information
The ReadDICOM_Series macro reads a set of DICOM V3 files and outputs a DICOM_Volume containing the reconstructed volume of data from the images. A DICOM_Volume is basically uniform field can be directly connected to all the standard visualization modules. The information in the image header is output as an DICOM_Header object. This object simply contains references to 5 further objects which actually contain the primitive data values. See below for further information.
The ReadDICOM_Series macro uses an interface to read_DCMLIST to specify the series of files to be loaded. The user interface also allows the information in the image header to be examined.
The ReadDICOM_Series and ReadDICOM_File modules use the DCM ToolKit (DCMTK) to read DICOM files. This toolkit was developed by the OFFIS Institute for Information Technology.
Select DICOM Series - this button brings up a UI which allows the user to specify the DICOM series to be loaded, please refer to read_DCMLIST for more information on managing DICOM files. Unless a DCMLIST file is found in the current directory the macro will give and error that "./DCMLIST is not found", this is normal behaviour. The Change Directory button allows a directory containing DICOM files to be specified. If no DCMLIST file is present or files have been added/removed then Rescan should be used to generate an upto date DCMLIST file. The Read button will load the selected series. The Delete button will delete the selected series. NOTE The Delete button is inactive under Win32 as it is assumed that the DICOM files are under the control of an external database such as eFilm.
Series Information - this text region display the more useful pieces of information once a series is loaded.
Patient, Study, Series and Equipment Information - these buttons bring up further windows displaying more detailed information obtained from the DICOM files. See below for further information.
out
This object contains the image data contained within the DICOM file. The object is of type DICOM_Volume. This object is derived from DICOM_Volume and can be used in the exactly the same way as a standard uniform field. The DICOM_Volume object is used so that the number of dimensions can be constrained so that only 3D data can be stored. This will not effect how the object can be used.
obj
A renderable object. Not particularly useful in itself.
header
This object contains the header information contained within the DICOM file. The object is of type DICOM_Header. This object contains references to 5 further objects. These objects actually contain the information read from the DICOM file. Each of these sub-objects corresponds to the appropriate DICOM module. These modules are patient, generalStudy, generalSeries, generalEquipment and imageSeries.
The User Macro ReadDICOM_Series uses the low-level module read_dicom_files, read_DCMLIST. It also uses the parameter blocks DICOM_Header and DICOM_Volume.
Two example applications are provided. They both read in a DICOM format file. The TileDicomEg example uses the tile_volume module to visualize the data whilst the IsoSurfaceDicomEg example uses the isosurface module. The IsoSurfaceDicomEg also uses a downsize module to reduce the amount of data to be visualized.
iac_proj/rd_dicom/rddimacs.v contains the V definitions of the ReadDICOM_Series and ReadDICOM_File User Macros, the ReadDCMLISTUI Macro, and the example applications TileDicomEg and IsoSurfaceDicomEg.
If the Output of the ReadDICOM project is used with the standard Orthoslice module the output of this module shows the slice from the back side.
James S. Perrin Manchester Visualization Centre
Tobias Schiebeck International AVS Centre
International AVS Centre Research computing Services University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester United Kingdom M13 9PL
read_dicom_files, TileDicomEg, IsoVolDicomEg, Image_Data, Image_Header, Read_ACR_NEMA (IAC module)